Gangs, extortion in Bangladesh camps driving Rohingya sea exodus

ARAB NEWS
29 November 2023
AFP

Newly-arrived Rohingya refugees rest on a beach in Sabang island, Aceh province on Nov. 22, 2023 as they escape violence and brutality in Bangladesh camps. (AFP)

• Rohingya escape escalating brutality in the camps in and around Cox’s Bazar
• Bangladesh defense ministry identifies at least 11 armed groups operating in the camps 
  

 

LHOKSEUMAWE, Indonesia: Holding his son’s hand in a temporary shelter in Indonesia, Rohingya Mohamed Ridoi says he made the dangerous 12-day sea journey from massive refugee camps in Bangladesh to escape the pervasive threats of kidnapping, extortion and murder.

Gangs, extortion in Bangladesh camps driving Rohingya sea exodus

FRANCE 24
Issued on: 27/11/2023

Lhokseumawe (Indonesia) (AFP) – Holding his son's hand in a temporary shelter in Indonesia, Rohingya Mohamed Ridoi says he made the dangerous 12-day sea journey from massive refugee camps in Bangladesh to escape the pervasive threats of kidnapping, extortion and murder. 

Rohingya refugees say they fled escalating brutality in the camps in and around Cox's Bazar, which hold more than one million people © ZIKRI MAULANA / AFP 

The 27-year-old said he was starting a "peaceful life" in a temporary shelter in Indonesia's western Aceh Province, where more than 1,000 Rohingya people have arrived this month, the largest such influx since 2015.

Gangs Taking Control of Bangladesh Rohingya Camps, Report Warns

THE GLOBE POST
by Staff Writer

April 25, 2019

  Some 700,000 Rohingya have fled over the border to Bangladesh since August. Photo: AFP

Criminal gangs and militants are increasing their grip on Rohingya refugee camps in Bangladesh, committing killings and abductions with “impunity,” International Crisis Group said in a new report Thursday.

About 740,000 Rohingya fled Myanmar for Bangladesh after a brutal military crackdown in August 2017, joining huge numbers already confined to the camps after earlier violence across the border.

Ruthless meth networks get ill-prepared Myanmar hooked.

Digital Journal

20th Feb 2019,

By Richard SARGENT and Hla Hla HTAY (AFP)

Myanmar is now believed to be the largest source of methamphetamine in the world

Ye Aung THU, AFP

Mobs of stick-wielding church-goers in Myanmar's northeast used to descend on dealers and addicts in a desperate effort to save their communities from a meth-induced health crisis sweeping the country.

But anonymous death threats brought the vigilante operations to a halt.

"It simply became too dangerous for us," says Zau Man, leader of the local Baptist church in Kutkai, a town in Shan State scarred by addiction.