Rohingya crisis: Why aid is slow to reach refugees

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You expect chaotic scenes at the beginning of a refugee crisis of the scale we are seeing here in south-eastern Bangladesh.

But almost two-and-a-half weeks later, the beginnings of an organised response should have at least started to emerge.

We are not seeing that here in Cox's Bazar, where many Rohingya fleeing Myanmar have ended up.

The C-130 transport aircraft loaded with food and shelter have not been landing at the airport; you don't see aid trucks loaded with tents and water-purifying units lumbering along the busy roads.

Indeed, one of the most shocking things among all the horror here is that fact many Rohingya say they have had no contact with any aid agencies or international aid bodies at all.

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Many say they have had details - their names and the villages they are from - taken at the border. After that, they have been on their own.

Virtually all the squalid shelters you see in the vast makeshift cities that refugees are hacking out of the scrub in the low hills are built and paid for by the refugees themselves.

A thriving new economy has grown up beside the roadside. Stalls sell freshly cut bamboo poles and flimsy black plastic sheets to the refugees.

If you don't have money, you don't get anything.

• Beyond the official story in Myanmar
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Tens of thousands of people have been sleeping out in the open despite the monsoon rains.

Food is in short supply. Huge crowds appear around the trucks from which well-meaning Bangladeshis throw food and clothes down into seething masses.

I've seen children and old people being trampled in the chaos.

That is not to say that nothing is being done. All the main aid agencies and international bodies are here.

On the record they are diplomatic. They will admit that lots of people are not getting the help they need and will concede that the organisation of the relief effort could be better.

But speak to them off the record and you get a different story. They say they are frustrated by the lack of co-ordination and the restrictions imposed by the Bangladeshi government on how they can operate.