New Delhi: fire rips through Rohingya refugee camp, leaving hundreds homeless

A massive fire has destroyed a Rohingya refugee camp in the Indian capital, New Delhi, leaving hundreds of people homeless.

The blaze broke out at about 11:30pm on Saturday and quickly spread through the camp, reducing 55 ramshackle shelters to ashes in the Madanpur Khadar area in the capital city’s south. No deaths or serious injuries have been reported in the fire – the second time the camp has been reduced to ashes since 2018.

The fire service department of the national capital said that it put 15 fire tenders into service and brought the blaze under control in about six hours. ‘We rushed to the spot quickly and started dousing the flames,’ Sandeep, an operator at the Delhi Fire Service,

The fire tore through the camp, home to 55 families – filling the sky with plumes of smoke and flames as refugees scrambled to safety, crying for help.

Asif Mujtaba, a Delhi-based activist, told Al Jazeera that his group was one of the first to provide relief as soon as the flames were doused.

‘We shifted those who needed medical attention to nearby hospitals, and arranged water and food for the refugees,’ Mujtaba said, adding that he was reaching out to officials to help set up an interim relief camp for them, in the scorching summer heat. ‘We are also mapping out details of the families who suffered losses in the fire,’ he said.

An estimated 40,000 Rohingya refugees, many believed to be undocumented, live in camps across Indian cities, including Jammu, Hyderabad and Nuh. The United Nations refugee agency has provided some of them with refugee cards, which helps them to access some basic services and is supposed to protect them from police action.

While police have launched an investigation into the fire, some refugees did not rule out sabotage.

‘Apparently, the cause of the fire is a short circuit,’ Bharat Singh, a Delhi Police investigative officer, told Al Jazeera from the camp.

‘Forensic science experts have collected samples of electric wires from the spot to ascertain the cause behind the fire.’

For more information, please visit: www.aljazeera.com/news/2021/6/13/lost-everything-fire-engulfs-rohingya-camp-in-delhi