'Life is meaningless'

In the refugee camps of Cox's Bazar, where a million people fled from genocide in Myanmar, Rohingya hold little hope of return-and are finding their lives devastated by diseases such as cancer and diabetes

- Kaamil Ahmed

The tumours that kept growing in her chest were cut out three times before Noor Saimun, a Rohingya refugee in Bangladesh, was tested for cancer. By the time it was diagnosed, the cancer had spread from her breast throughout her body.

Saimun now spends her days incapacitated by pain, lying on the floor of her bamboo shelter. Around her, many of her neighbours suffer other types of non-communicable and chronic illnesses - cancers, diabetes and hypertension - but they often go without treatment and the tools they need to manage their conditions.

"My life is meaningless, I can't move anywhere, I can't do anything," said Saimun. "I sit here in pain, I can't even get up to eat. I spend my whole day lying in bed. I can't explain how much pain I'm in." Last week the UN warned that people caught up in humanitarian emergencies are at increased risk of cardiovascular disease, cancer, diabetes and other non-communicable diseases (NCDs), which are responsible for more than 70% of deaths worldwide.

It is estimated that strokes and heart attacks are up to three times more likely after a disaster, and UN agencies met in Denmark last week to ensure that care and treatment for NCDs are included as a standard part of humanitarian emergency preparedness and response.

A million people live in the Rohingya refugee camps of Bangladesh’s Cox’s Bazar district, and today, six years after the refugees started to arrive , driven from their homes in Myanmar by the military, the prospect of returning home is as distant as ever. Those living with chronic illnesses have to contend with funding cuts that mean a lack of medication, struggle to get the nutrition needed to avoid or manage their conditions and a lack of health services that can even detect their ailments .