Thousands of Rohingya refugees were left homeless after a fire swept through parts of a refugee camp in Bangladesh on Sunday, according to a statement by the police.

About 850,000 of the persecuted Muslim minority – many of whom escaped a 2017 military crackdown in Myanmar that United Nations investigators concluded was executed with "genocidal intent" – live in a network of camps in Bangladesh's border district of Cox's Bazar.

"About 1,200 houses were burnt in the fire," said Kamran Hossain, a spokesperson for the Armed Police Battalion, which heads security in the camp.

The fire started at Camp 16 and raced through shelters made of bamboo and tarpaulin, leaving more than 5,000 people homeless, he said.

"The fire started at 4:40 p.m. (10:40 a.m. GMT) and was brought under control at around 6:30 pm," he told Agence France-Presse (AFP).

Abdur Rashid, 22, said the fire was so big that he ran for safety as his house and furniture were engulfed by the blaze.

"Everything in my house was burnt. My baby and wife were out. There were a lot of things in the house," he said.

"I saved 30,000 taka ($350) from working as a day laborer. The money was burnt in the fire.

"I am now under the open sky. I lost my dream."

In March last year, 15 people died and about 50,000 were left homeless in Bangladesh after a huge fire destroyed Rohingya homes in the world's biggest refugee settlement.

Mohammad Yasin, 29, criticized the lack of fire safety equipment in the camps.

"Fire occurs here frequently. There was no way we could put out the fire. There was no water. My home is burnt. Many documents, which I brought from Myanmar, are also burnt. And it is cold here," he said.

Bangladesh has been praised for taking in refugees who poured across the border from Myanmar but has had little success finding them permanent homes./AFP