Fleeing Rohingya now trapped at border
Thousands of Rohingya refugees were being held at the Bangladesh border for a third consecutive day yesterday in an area border guards said was too dangerous for journalists and other foreigners to enter because of shooting from the Myanmar side.
An estimated 10,000 to 15,000 refugees have been trapped at the Anjuma Para border crossing area in the Ukhia district of south-east Bangladesh since Sunday night. They are on the Bangladesh side of the Naf river, which runs along the border with Myanmar, but are not being allowed to pass through the crossing to officially enter the country.
Yesterday, as international medical staff negotiated to be allowed access to the refugees, the border guard in charge of the crossing told The National that the new arrivals were not being allowed to enter because they were not facing the same level of violence as the 580,000 other Rohingya who have fled from Myanmar to Bangladesh since August 25.
“How can I let them in? We are already entertaining 10 lakh [one million],” Capt Rubel said, referring to the estimated Rohingya population now in Bangladesh, which includes Rohingya who fled Myanmar before the latest round of violence began in August.
“Initially the violence was so serious and we entertained people who came into Bangladesh because they were so vulnerable and helpless. Now we are overloaded,” he said. “These people come from Maungdaw because they want a better life,” he added, referring to the region of Myanmar’s northern Rakhine state closest to the Bangladesh border.
“Some people [have] relatives here and their relatives are encouraging them to [come] and stay here. They have problems, but it’s not the problems that are causing them to migrate.”
Despite his claim that the refugees were not in danger, the captain insisted that the area
Bangladesh has so far received widespread praise for hosting the influx of Rohingya refugees from Myanmar
was too dangerous for journalists and other foreigners – other than emergency health workers – to enter because of the violence in Rakhine.
“This place is not safe. We cannot allow journalists in. We cannot take the risk. They are shooting from the other side,” he said. It was not clear who was firing the shots. Countries are obliged to protect refugees under international law.
As The National spoke with Capt Rubel, two refugees who had made it across paddy fields on the Bangladesh side of the Naf river, were turned back from the Anjuma Para border crossing by armed guards without being allowed to see international medical staff who were running a makeshift clinic near by.
One heavily pregnant woman with badly lacerated feet, who had to be held up by medical staff, was allowed into the centre for treatment.
On Tuesday, the UN’s refugee agency, the UNHCR, said the agency and its partners, the Bangladesh Red Crescent and Action against Hunger, were delivering food and water to the stranded refugees, among them children, women and the elderly who were dehydrated and hungry from the long journey. Medecins Sans Frontieres was also working to identify the sick for treatment. But when The National reached the border area yesterday morning, international aid workers were being denied access to the refugees. Just before midday, permission was given by border guards for aid workers to enter. Water supplies from Unicef were sent by boat across the marshland towards those sheltering in the paddy fields under tarpaulin as weather throughout the day fluctuated between baking heat and heavy rains.
Border guards also gave permission for emergency and life-saving international NGO staff to pass through the crossing from Bangladesh and treat refugees in urgent need, but said they would not be allowed to bring people back to the crossing for treatment.
Residents near the border point said they believed several hundred refugees had crossed over under cover of darkness, but there was no official confirmation of the figures.
Capt Rubel denied allegations by locals that five refugees had died while trapped at the border. “I would have been the first to know if such a thing had happened,” he said.
The UNHCR said that as far as it was aware, boats carrying refugees across the Naf river to other entry points were still being allowed to enter Bangladesh.
But of the situation at the Anjuma Para crossing, UNHCR spokesperson Vivian Tan said: “It’s extremely worrying that the refugees have been moved closer to [the river] where there are reports of nightly gunshots on the Myanmar side.”
“These new arrivals are also in desperate shape, having walked for days with little food and water to seek safety in Bangladesh. They urgently need to be moved inland to the transit centre being prepared for them in Ukhia. We continue to advocate this with the authorities and have been assured that they will be moved soon.”
Bangladesh has so far received widespread praise from the international community for hosting the influx of Rohingya refugees from Myanmar amid what the UN has condemned as “ethnic cleansing”.
The hundreds of thousands of Rohingya refugees who have fled Myanmar since military reprisals were launched on August 25 after attacks by insurgent group the Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army, have reported brutal killings and other attacks by the Myanmar military and Rakhine Buddhists.