Influx stops as Rakhine villages emptied

COX’S BAZAR: The flood of Rohingya refugees into Bangladesh has come to a virtual halt, Dhaka officials said yesterday, almost a month after violence erupted in Myanmar’s Rakhine State and sent nearly 430,000 people fleeing across the border.

Officials gave no reason for the dramatically reduced numbers. But Rohingya Muslim leaders said it could be because villages near the border in Rakhine State were now empty.

Bangladesh Border Guard commanders said hardly any refugees were seen crossing on boats from Myanmar or trying to get over the land border.

In the past two weeks, there had been up to 20,000 people a day entering Bangladesh.

The United Nations said 429,000 Rohingya had sought refuge in Bangladesh since attacks by Rohingya militants in Rakhine on Aug 25 sparked a major Myanmar military crackdown.

Many gave up money and jewellery to get places on boats crossing the Naf river, which marked part of the border.

“Our guards have not seen any Rohingya coming in the past few days. The wave is over,” Bangladesh Border Guard commander S.M. Ariful Islam said.

The UN also said “the influx has dropped”. It said it would now release updates on the numbers of refugees entering Bangladesh once a week, rather than daily.

Rohingya community leaders said most of the Rakhine villages were now deserted.

“Almost all the people I know have arrived in Bangladesh,” Yusuf Majihi, a Rohingya leader at a camp at Balukhali near here.

Farid Alam, another Rohingya leader, said “I have not heard of any Rohingya crossing the border in the past five days. All I could see is people concentrating near the main camps.”

But despite the calm on the border, there were new signs of unrest in Myanmar.

While the army chief blamed Rohinyga militants for an explosion outside a mosque in Rakhine, Amnesty International accused the military of starting fires in the region to prevent refugees from returning. AFP