TEHRAN – Iran plans to supply warm food to Rohingya Muslims living in displacement camps in Bangladesh.

The Iranian deputy health minister Mohammad Reza Ayyazi, heading a delegation, paid a visit to a refugee zone near Cox’s Bazar close to Myanmar border in Bangladesh on Friday.

“Now a group of sikhs from Punjab supplies some 5,000 dishes of warm food to the region on the daily basis,” he said, adding, Iran has the capacity and potential to provide the Rohingya refugees with much more meals.

Iranian benefactors can provide funds for supplying warm food and preparing cooking facilities in Bangladesh, he proposed.

“In this line, the expenses for consignment of relief through airway is decreased as well and Myanmar Muslims enjoy food with their favorite taste,” he said.

“During our visit to the refugee camps, we decided to organize Iranian aid for Rohingya Muslims,” Tasnim quoted him as saying.

The Iranian Red Crescent Society chief Ali Asghar Peyvandi and Iran’s Ambassador to Dhaka Abbas Vaezi accompanied Ayyazi during his visit.

The arrival of Rohingya Muslims from Buddhist-dominated Myanmar since August 25 has put an immense strain on camps in Bangladesh where there are growing fears of a disease epidemic. 

----- Bangladesh health minister hails Iranian aids

The Bangladeshi Minister for Health and Family Welfare Mohammed Nasim has expressed his thanks over the dispatching of aid consignments by Iranians for Rohingya refugees in Bangladesh.

Nasim net with the Iranian Red Crescent Society chief Ali Asghar Peyvandi in Dhaka on Thursday.

During the visit, Nasim said that the displaced people of Myanmar in Bangladesh need physical and mental supports.

Several volunteer physicians are offering free medical services to refugees in the region, he explained.

On Thursday, Iran sent its third humanitarian aid shipment for Myanmar’s Rohingya Muslims to Bangladesh.

The 30 tons of relief supplies included humanitarian aid and food supplies.

SB/MG