Rohingya students in Turkey help victims in fire-hit area

ANKARA

Rohingya students in Turkey are volunteering in fire-affected areas in the resort city of Antalya that has been battling blazes since last week.

"Turkey never left us [Rohingya] alone when we were in difficult situations. It is time for us now to support Turkey in its difficult time," Muhamed Husein told Anadolu Agency.

Husein is one of four Rohingya students helping wildfire-hit people in Turkey's southern Mediterranean region.

"We are the Rohingya students who joined Kizilay as volunteers to work in the fire-affected areas in Manavgat to help people suffering from the wildfires. We came here from Konya province for four days,” he added.

Turkey is one of the top countries providing humanitarian aids to over 1.2 million Rohingya refugees in southeastern Bangladesh as they fled military brutality and state persecution in Myanmar's western Rakhine state.

The third-year student, who also fled the brutality in August 2017, studying Healthcare Management at Necmettin Erbakan University in the central province of Konya, said volunteers are helping victims with food and other items along with Turkish Red Crescent (Kizilay) teams.

At least eight people have been killed in the fires fanned by strong winds that began July 28.

Turkey has successfully contained 167 of 174, according to officials.