BANGLADESH NEWS
The trespassing of Rohingyas from Myanmar is a common feature of the bordering area at Teknaf upazila in Cox's Bazar.
After the first influx in 1978, at least a hundred Rohingyas intrude Bangladesh every month and about fifty thousand of them now live at Teknaf alone, local officials say.
The officials say while the Myanmar government protected their border with Bangladesh through fencing, Bangladesh has kept its border quite open.
In the last few days, illegal entry attempts by Rohingyas have increased due to communal violence that swept through a western Myanmar state bordering with Teknaf.
An official statistics says the Border Guard Bangladesh teams prevented intrusion of 2,688 Burmese in 2010 and 1,802 last year.
The border force stopped 1,254 Burmese from entering the Bangladesh territory illegally in January-May this year.
But in the first two weeks of this month, the BGB foiled attempts of 720 Burmese to get into Teknaf.
Of the 720, around 500 have tried to intrude into Teknaf from June 11 till yesterday by a dozen of boats, according to a rough estimation of local administration.
BGB and coast guard members in 24 hours till 8:30pm Wednesday detained 48 Myanmar nationals who entered Bangladesh at different points like Shah Pori and St Martin islands. However, 36 of the intruders were pushed back.
It is also hard to get the specific statistics of boats as some of those after being turned away by BGB or coast guard teams went to a different point of the coast.
“On June 11, three boats carrying around 120 Rohingyas first came to the Shah Pori Island point and BGB sent them back. But they went to Saint Martin's Island, from where they were pushed back by a coast guard team,” said an official involved in the action.
“Those three boats went to two different points where the BGB and coast guard teams noticed them. At each point, the force concerned assumed the boats as new ones. So, it would be wrong to say six boats came that day.”
The same boats also can come another day, said the official to explain the difficulties of getting actual figure of Rohingya attempting to trespass and boats.
About the recent trespassing attempts of Rohingyas, ANM Nazim Uddin, upazila nirbahi officer of Teknaf, “I don't think there is any scope of terming it influx.”
“It was influx when they [Rohingyas] were forcefully sent to Bangladesh in 1991.”
The recent violence in Maungdaw and Sittwe, the capital of Rakhine state, has led to the increase in trespassing attempts of Rohingyas.
The people and officials in Teknaf expect such attempts would be stopped soon.
Because of trade and other social relationships between the two neighbouring countries, people in Teknaf keep trying to know the situation in Maungdaw and Akiab.
Some of them told this correspondent, they came to know from some locals in Myanmar that now the situation is calm and quite in the Burmese towns.
They said the clashes between Rakhines and Rohingyas in Myanmar over the past several weeks started from some small-unwanted incidents.
Police and Luntin Armed Police Battalion helped Rakhines and took part in looting and attacking Rohingyas. This was why the situation in Myanmar deteriorated.
Locals in Teknaf also said Luntin and police even fired at Myanmar's border force Nasaka and army, who were deployed to control the situation.
The Myanmar government had positioned their army on June 11 in its turmoil-hit neighbourhoods and withdrawn Luntin and police from those areas for their controversial roles.
Based on the information, Bangladeshi locals and authorities in Teknaf say they believe the present crisis is not comparable with that of 1978 and 1991.
In 1978, around on hundred thousand Rohingyas fled from Myanmar into Bangladesh and it was about 2,50,000 in 1991.
Amir Ahmed, 55, president of the association of imams in Teknaf, said, in 1991 the Naf River was heavily congested with hundreds of boats of Rohingyas approaching Teknaf.
He said 50,000 to 1 lakh Rohingyas came to Teknaf and in 1991 it could be 2.5 to 3 lakh.
Locals believe in 1991, Myanmar government wanted Rohingyas to leave the country, but this time it is just opposite.
A local official said, “After the recent violence in Myanmar's bordering neighbourhood, their government sealed their border. That means the Myanmar government wants their citizens to stay in their soil.”
“We expect as Myanmar government has taken steps to solve the recent problems, the situation will be normal soon.”
He called for quick steps to protect the Bangladesh border with Myanmar.
A top government officials in Teknaf said, Myanmar dose not face any problem from Bangladeshis. “Our people don't try to trespass on Myanmar; Burmese come to our land illegally. But Myanmar protected their border through fencing but we have no protection accept inadequate vigilance by the forces.”
Against this backdrop, the local administration in Teknaf and Cox's Bazar proposed the top of the government to fence the Bangladesh border with pocket gates at different points, construct circular road near the border for proper vigilance and set up close-circuit cameras at strategic points of the border.
No progress has been made on the proposals yet, they said.
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