A Rohingya refugee reacts as people scuffle while waiting to receive aid in Cox’s Bazar on Tuesday. — Reuters photo
Many of Rohingyas who have entered Bangladesh fleeing violence in Myanmar to save life are now spreading out deep into the country despite restrictions on their travel outside the designated camps in Cox’s Bazar.
The government on September 10 initiated a process for registering all Rohingya newcomers and bringing and keeping them in a camp at Balukhali of Ukhia upazila and imposed restrictions on their travel outside the designated areas camps in Cox’s Bazar so that they could not spread out and mingle with Bangladeshis
The Rohingyas, however, started to spread out across the country looking for better shelter, as most of them were still living under open sky or makeshift shelters made of bamboo and plastic sheets failing to find a place in overwhelmed camps, and looking for work opportunity to earn their living, said local people and police officials.
Chittagong range deputy inspector general of police SM Moniruzzaman said that they had detained about 14,000 Rohingyas in different districts and sent them to the camps in Cox’s Bazar.
He said that cops at checkpoints were checking vehicles to prevent Rohingays from travelling outside the designated areas.
Another Rohingya youth, Nurul Alam, 26, died in the blast of a landmine planted by Myanmar security forces along the border opposite of Boro Chhonkhola in Naikhyangchari upazila of Bandarban.
Border Guard Bangladesh battalion 31 second-in-command Major M Ashraf Ali said that one Rohingya was killed in blast in Myanmar side while he went to Myanmar to collect his domestic animal.
According to border guard officials, with this at least six Rohingyas were killed and 12 were injured in this month in blasts of landmines planted by Myanmar security forces along the border.
UN agencies on Tuesday said that about 4.80 lakh Rohingyas had entered Bangladesh since August 25, when the violence, what the United Nations termed a textbook example of ethnic cleansing, began in Rakhine state of Myanmar.
Officials estimated that the influx already took to 9 lakh the number of Myanmar people living in Bangladesh.
UN refugee agency UNHCR and International Organisation for Migration expressed fear that the new influx might take to 10 lakh the number of Myanmar nationals in Bangladesh by the end of the year.
The ongoing ethnic cleansing began on August 25, when Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army reportedly attacked dozens of police posts and checkpoints and one military base in Rakhine. The insurgent group,
however, said that it made the attacks to pre-empt military attacks on Rohingyas.
Terrified, half-starved, exhausted Rohingyas arrived in Bangladesh in their thousands trekking through hills and crossing rough sea and the River Naf on boat.
Law enforcers detained over 13,500 Rohingays during or after getting on buses for different destinations at places in Cox’s Bazar in September and sent them back to the their camp at Balukhali.
The police also detained several hundred Rohingyas in different districts, including Chittagong, Narayanganj, Manikganj, Feni, Jessore, Sathkhira and Sunamganj and sent them back to the camp in Cox’s Bazar.
The police on September 16 issued advisory asking citizens not to rent houses to any Rohingya to help keep them in the camps only.
The police headquarters asked transport workers and people concerned to stay alert so that Rohingyas could not travel out of Cox’s Bazar. It also asked citizens to inform local administration if Rohingyas were found on rented and other places other than their camps.
With physical features very similar to those of Bengalis, Rohingyas can mix well with the Bangladeshi community. Unless they disclose their identities, it is hard to distinguish them from Bengalis, so they are easily travelling to different places, said police officials.
The home ministry on Monday asked bus and other transport owners in Cox’s Bazar to check passengers’ identity amid escalating concerns that Rohingyas might fan out across the country.
‘We want to stop them fanning out from their shelters in Cox’s Bazar,’ home minister Asaduzzaman Khan said in Dhaka on Monday.
He said that all passengers would need to produce their photo identity cards, while getting on any kind of transport in the area as law enforcement agencies installed checkpoints at places.
According to police officials, on September 10 the police headquarters issued an order on superintendents of police in Cox’s Bazar, Bandarban and Chittagong, additional inspector general of Special Branch, director general of Rapid Action Battalion and commissioner of Chittagong Metropolitan of Police to take necessary measures to stop Rohingyas from spreading out.
New Age correspondent in Cox’s Bazar reported that Cox’s Bazar additional district magistrate Khaled Mahmud, also focal person on Rohingya issue, said that the rate of Rohingays spreading out reduced.
Bangladesh government allocated 2,000 acres of land at Balukhali and was now building 14,000 sheds for Rohingyas. It also allocated Tk 40 crore for repairing and constructing roads and fencing new camp at Balukhali.
‘We are trying to bring all Rohingays in the camp but it is a time consuming task,’ he added.
Khaled Mahmud also said that they decided to stop providing cooked food to about one lakh Rohingyas from Wednesday.
‘Rohinagys do not want to eat hotchpotch we are providing, they are demanding change in food menu with rice, dried fish and lentil, which we cannot give them right now,’ he said.
State minister for social welfare Nuruzzaman Ahmed on Tuesday said that Bangladesh would build separate camp for Rohingya orphans.
He estimated that around 6,000 orphan Rohingya children had taken shelter in Bangladesh.
Separate smart identity cards would be issued for children orphaned or separated from their families, Nuruzzaman said at press conference in Dhaka.
‘We have requested 200 acres of land in Ukhia and Teknaf to build a camp for Rohingya children,’ he said
Over half of the Rohingya newcomers were children and infants who were crying for food. Several thousand of them were victim to indiscriminate violence and were orphaned or separated from their parents.
UNHCR called for a redoubling of the international humanitarian response in Bangladesh. It said that conditions for an estimated 436,000 Rohingya refugees who fled to Bangladesh from Myanmar in the past one month could still deteriorate.
UNHCR spokesperson Adrian Edwards at a briefing in Geneva also said that despite every effort by those on the ground, the massive influx of people seeking safety had been outpacing capacities to respond, and the situation for these refugees had still not stabilised. Many of those who arrived recently were deeply traumatised. Despite having found refuge in Bangladesh, they were still exposed to enormous hardship.
The spokesperson said that as part of its contribution to the response led by the Bangladeshi authorities, the UNHCR flew in its fourth humanitarian airlift loaded with 100 metric tonnes of aid Tuesday morning.
New York-based Human Rights Watch on Tuesday said that Myanmar security forces were committing crimes against humanity against the Rohingya population in Rakhine state.
The military has committed forced deportation, murder, rape, and persecution against Rohingya Muslims in northern Rakhine state, resulting in countless deaths and mass displacement, it said.
‘The Burmese military is brutally expelling the Rohingya from northern Rakhine State,’ said Human Rights Watch legal and policy director James Ross, adding, ‘the massacres of villagers and mass arson driving people from their homes are all crimes against humanity.’
Source: New Age
