Refugee camps over capacity

Following a series of major eruption of Mt. Merapi in Yogyakarta over the last two days, more people have been streaming into refugee camps, with some of them experiencing overcapacity.

A refugee camp in Wukirsari village, for example, accommodates nearly 8,200 people, four times its ideal capacity.

Refugee camp coordinator Rosyid Ma'ruf said Thursday more than 5,100 refugees arrived on Wednesday night, hours after the volcano spewed more volcanic materials and hot ash. The eruptions forced the government to relocate refugees from camps located in a radius of below 15 kilometers from the volcano’s crater.

Rosyid said the additional refugees came from Kepuharjo, Umbulharjo and Glagaharjo camps, which were closed due to the volcano’s increasing activities.

“The number of refugees may increase,” he said as quoted by kompas.com.

The refugee camp in Glagaharjo was moved to the south about three kilometers from the old camp. The new camp also received 1,000 new refugees.

“We will allocate places for new refugees despite the limited logistics and facilities,” village secretary Agralno said.

He added that food stock at the refugee camp might be enough for one more day due to the overcapacity.