A few hundred Rohingyas have been crossing the border into Bangladesh daily through the Naf river over the past few days, facing attacks by both the Myanmar military and Arakan Army rebels in Rakhine state.
The newly arrived Rohingyas have alleged indiscriminate murder, rape and arson attacks by both sides in recent days.
Mohammed Mizanur Rahman, the refugee, relief and repatriation commissioner, told The Daily Star the official stand of Bangladesh is not to allow any more Myanmar nationals to enter illegally.
However, 8,000 to 10,000 Rohingyas arrived in Cox’s Bazar refugee camps recently, he added.
He also said most of them came on August 4 and August 5 when the situation in Bangladesh was unstable during the mass uprising.
Rohingya community leaders, however, said as many as 30,000 Rohingyas have arrived in the last month.
Earlier on September 3, Foreign Affairs Adviser Md Touhid Hossain told reporters that around 8,000 Rohingyas entered Bangladesh recently.
Around 1.2 million Rohingyas, most of whom fled a 2017 Myanmar military crackdown dubbed ethnic cleansing by the UN, are living in the sprawling camps of Cox’s Bazar.
Citing many of the newly arrived refugees, Rohingya journalist Saiful Arkani said that over 40,000 members of the ethnic minority group moved to the Min Gla Gy village of Rakhine’s North Maungdaw township to escape “attacks by the Arakan Army, who do not let them get out of their houses”.
The Arakan Army abducted Rohingya youths and raped their women, Arkani alleged.
On the other hand, the Myanmar military is carrying out air strikes on many Rohingya villages, Arkani said. Many Rohingyas were killed by drone attacks in August, he said.
Being targeted by both the military and the rebels, the Rohingyas who took shelter at Min Gla Gy village are fleeing to Bangladesh in groups by paying brokers, Arkani said.
Many of the freshly arrived Rohingyas narrated the ordeals they faced on their way to Bangladesh.
“We can’t live in Myanmar as the Arakan Army is killing our people and setting fire to our houses. We fled to Bangladesh to save our lives,” said Zura Khatun, a Rohingya woman from Jamtola of Maungdaw who arrived at a camp in Cox’s Bazar on September 4.
Some of the women were sexually harassed by brokers on their way to Bangladesh, another Rohingya woman said on the condition of anonymity.
The brokers from Boroitoli of Teknaf snatched their ornaments, around Tk 5 lakh cash and important documents, she said.
The fresh arrivals are now staying with their relatives in the camps of Teknaf and Ukhiya of Cox’s Bazar, which are already under strain in the face of dwindling support from international donors.
Lt Colonel Mohiuddin Ahmed, commanding officer of Border Guard Bangladesh (BGB) Battalion 2 in Teknaf, however, denied that Rohingyas are entering Bangladesh by crossing the Naf river, a natural border between the two countries.
“They may be using other ways,” he said, adding that BGB is not allowing any trespassers and has already pushed back many Rohingyas from the river.
Meanwhile, the Subrang union and municipal areas of Teknaf were rocked by the sound of loud explosions yesterday morning.
The continuous sound of blasts and shelling was coming across the river, where the Arakan Army and Myanmar junta troops are locked in fierce combat.
Daily Star
