Actress Priyanka Chopra has said Rohingya children are ‘still highly vulnerable’ in overcrowded refugee camps in Bangladesh, nine months after they were displaced from Myanmar.
She made the comments on an Instragram post on Monday evening after a visit to a Rohingya camp in Cox’s Bazar.
The actress said the world saw ‘horrific images of ethnic cleansing’ that drove around 700,000 from the Rakhine State of Myanmar into Bangladesh last year.
Chopra, who is visiting the refugee camps as a UNICEF goodwill ambassador, noted that 60 percent of the newly displaced Rohingyas are children.
“Many months later they are still highly vulnerable, living in overcrowded camps with no idea when or where they will ever belong…even worse, when they will get their next meal,” she said in the post.
She also noted the threat of landslides during monsoon facing the Rohingyas in the refugee camps built by the side of hills.
“This is an entire generation of children that have no future in sight. Through their smiles I could see the vacancy in their eyes,” she added.
“The world needs to care. We need to care,” she wrote.
She also added the website address where people can donate for children through the UNICEF: supportunicef.org.
She arrived at Shahjalal International Airport in Dhaka in the morning after attending the wedding of Britain’s Prince Harry and US actress Meghan Markle in the UK.
From there she took a US-Bangla flight to Cox’s Bazar, which arrived at 12:30pm.
Cox’s Bazar Additional Superintendent of Police Afrajul Haque Tutul told bdnews24.com Chopra also visited the local office of the UN agency for children before the refugee camp visit.
He said the actress spoke to the Rohingya children at different blocks of the refugee camp.
She declined to speak to the media during the visit.
Before ending her four-day tour on Thursday, she will visit the Balukhali and Jamtali refugee camps in Ukhiya on Tuesday and the Kutupalong Rohingya refugee camp on Wednesday.
