Bangladesh opens complex to house 'climate refugees'

Bangladesh has opened a complex of 20 blocks for people who have lost their homes due to storms and floods.

The South Asian country has faced a lot of devastation due to climate change and the nation is in the UN list of world's most vulnerable regions due to a warming planet.

The complex which opened on Thursday in the Cox's Bazar district of southeastern Bangladesh will provide shelter to around 650 families, with more under works.

Jobaida Begum, who lost her mother and grandmother in the ravaging 1991 cyclone that killed 138,000 people, was among the first people to receive keys for her apartment.

"Our home in the Kutubdia island was destroyed in the cyclone and we took shelter in a coastal slum outside Cox's Bazar airport. But during high tide, this slum home also goes under water," Jobaida said, reported news agency AFP.

The area, which has a population of around 40,000, is one of the biggest settlements in Bangladesh for the people referred as climate refugees.

The majority of people are from the Bay of Bengal island Kutubdia, which around 40 per cent submerged in water.

"The sea has swallowed everything my parents had in Kutubdia... We have been living in this damp slum for past 25 years," said Jillul Karim, 40, another of those who to were given a flat.