Ukhia — Bangladesh has launched a birth control drive in its overcrowded Rohingya refugee camps, an official said on Tuesday, fearing that a population boom would worsen the humanitarian crisis unfolding along its border. Family planning teams have been deployed to offer advice and distribute condoms and other contraceptives throughout its ill-equipped camps, which have been overwhelmed by the arrival of 420,000 Rohingya refugees since August 25. Authorities have already identified 70,000 new or expectant mothers among the latest influx from Myanmar, and they fear that without intervention the population pressures could worsen in coming months, as the crisis drags on. "They have six, seven, eight, nine, 10 children," said Pintu Kanti Bhattacharjee, head of the government’s family planning department in Cox’s Bazar district where the camps are located. "We are very worried. If they are here for another six months to a year, another 20,000 children will be born." Mothers with newborns...
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