Rohingya refugees trapped in no-man's land between Bangladesh and Burma Credit: Ye Aung Thu/AFP
Bangladesh is planning to install barbed-wire fencing, guard towers and cameras around Rohingya refugee camps, raising fears of prison-like conditions in the already bleak settlements.
The move comes amid growing security concerns and rising impatience in Dhaka that no solution has been found to repatriate or rehouse some one million refugees who have fled from Burma’s Rakhine state to the Bangladeshi port of Cox’s Bazar, most during a murderous military crackdown in 2017.
"There are three large camps. We'll fence the three camps with barbed wires," Home Minister Asaduzzaman Khan told reporters this week. "Watch towers and CCTV cameras" would also be set up to monitor activity in the Cox's Bazar district settlements, he added, according to AFP.
The move comes amid growing security concerns and rising impatience in Dhaka that no solution has been found to repatriate or rehouse some one million refugees who have fled from Burma’s Rakhine state to the Bangladeshi port of Cox’s Bazar, most during a murderous military crackdown in 2017.
"There are three large camps. We'll fence the three camps with barbed wires," Home Minister Asaduzzaman Khan told reporters this week. "Watch towers and CCTV cameras" would also be set up to monitor activity in the Cox's Bazar district settlements, he added, according to AFP.
Tensions over the camps have increased since a repatriation bid to encourage refugees to return to Burma in August failed because of the minority’s fears that they would not be allowed back to their homes and would never be granted Burmese citizenship.
Life inside the Bangladeshi camps is already bleak Credit: Mohammad Ponir Hossain/Reuters
The aborted attempt has heightened the possibility that a large section of the Rohingya community could be forcibly relocated in the near future to Bhasan Char, a remote, cyclone-prone silt island that only recently emerged from the sea.
Dhaka has been dialing up the pressure on the Rohingya, taking steps to restrict their activities, including the blocking of 3G and 4G mobile networks, confiscating SIM cards and mobile phones, reportedly over fears that criminal gangs are involved in murder and drug smuggling.
Two refugees were killed in a gun battle with Bangladeshi border guards after failing to surrender when they were caught trying to cross over from Burma early on Friday and reportedly opened fire. The guards claimed the men were carrying 70,000 methamphetamine tablets.
The movement of Rohingya refugees to and from the crowded Cox’s Bazar camps is already severely restricted, and families are unable to earn a livelihood and children cannot receive a higher education.
Aid workers have indicated that conditions in the squalid settlements are rapidly becoming more desperate.
Children in the camps have no hope of a higher education Credit: Munir Uz Zaman/AFP
“As tensions inside Cox’s Bazar mount, violence has become a daily occurrence and we know that there are many Rohingya refugees desperate to return to their homes,” Manish Agrawal, Bangladesh director for the International Rescue Committee, told The Telegraph earlier this month.
“People find it impossible to look to the future and live beyond each day; they cannot access basic services and finding work is out of the question.”
But Mr Agarwal added that despite the hardships, there was still “immense fear” of returning to Burma and that any repatriation must be done on a safe and voluntary basis.
“This will only happen if the root causes of the crisis are addressed and the governments of Bangladesh and Myanmar work collaboratively with the international community; the Rohingya people must have a viable pathway to citizenship, have access to jobs and services and, most of all, protected from harm,” he said.
Last year, a United Nations fact-finding team recommended the prosecution of top Burmese military commanders on charges of genocide, war crimes and crimes against humanity. Burma has rejected the allegations.
In mid-September the team cited the lack of accountability for the perpetrators of the alleged crimes when it concluded that "that there is a serious risk that genocidal actions may occur or recur”.
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