Rohingya women in Bangladesh face 'forced prostitution'

The United Nations is warning that more than half a million Rohingya refugees who have fled Rakhine since August are at risk of exploitation in Bangladesh. One woman told Nomia Iqbal, from the BBC's Newsday programme, how she had been groomed and forced into prostitution after fleeing.

With her face covered in a pink scarf, 21-year-old Hamima agreed to talk to me in a private place.

"As we entered Bangladesh, we were taken to camp, where a local Bangladeshi man gave us some food," she said. "He told me he had lost his wife and he has two kids. He said he wanted to marry me."

Halima said she had believed him and had accompanied him to his house in Cox's Bazar.

"When I got to the house, I saw seven to eight young girls like me," she said. "I was scared. In this house he forced me to have sex with many men."Halima came to Bangladesh three months ago to escape the violence in Northern Rakhine. She does not know where her family are and arrived with her neighbours.

More than half of the mainly Muslim Rohingya refugees are children - they have been escaping the violence carried out against them committed by the Myanmar army and some local Buddhist extremists.

Hamima told me she had stayed two months in the house, which was run by a Bangladeshi woman.

"I was dolled up and had this make-up on," she said. "Sometimes three to four men would come to the house in one night. It was so difficult and I would start bleeding for days."