Bangladesh foils 6th attempt by Rohingya to get a boat to Malaysia

TEKNAF: Bangladesh security forces stopped 29 people, mostly Rohingya, from being smuggled into Malaysia in fishing boats, officials said on Saturday, the latest group prevented from leaving refugee camps.

Lieutenant Commander Mahmud Hasan said Bangladesh Coast Guard forces found 16 women, seven children and six men waiting for the boat along the coast of the southern Saint Martin’s Island.

“Among them, 22 are Rohingya refugees from the Cox’s Bazar camps and the rest are Bangladeshis. We have arrested three human traffickers with a boat,” Hasan said.

He said the security forces had handed over the traffickers to police and sent the refugees back to Kutupalong, the largest refugee camp in the world.

About 740,000 Rohingya fled Myanmar for Bangladesh, escaping a military crackdown in the Buddhist-majority nation in Aug 2017, and joining some 300,000 refugees living in the camps.

Saturday’s operation marked the sixth time since November that Rohingya have been intercepted attempting to get a boat to Malaysia.

Bangladesh security forces on February had stopped more than 100 people — mostly Rohingya refugees — from making the dangerous journey.

People smugglers sent tens of thousands of Rohingya from the camps to Malaysia before Bangladesh launched a crackdown in 2015 following the discovery of mass graves of refugees by Thai authorities.

Many people attempt to leave Bangladesh by boat while the Bay of Bengal remains calm before the arrival of the monsoon season at the end of March, said coast guard officials.