DHAKA: Bangladesh has stepped up vigilance on its border with Myanmar, with at least 18,000 Rohingya Muslims crossing in recent months to escape escalating violence in western Myanmar's Rakhine state, officials in Dhaka said.
The influx of refugees from Myanmar has increased as fighting escalates between the ruling junta's troops and the Arakan Army, the powerful ethnic militia that recruits from the Buddhist majority.
“Thousands of Rohingya have fled to Bangladesh and many are waiting to cross. The situation is dire,” said a Foreign Ministry official, who asked not to be named because he was not authorized to speak to the media.
The new arrivals join more than a million Rohingya refugees already living in overcrowded camps in Cox's Bazar district after fleeing a military-led crackdown in Myanmar in 2017. They have little hope of returning to Myanmar, where they are mostly deny citizenship and such. fundamental rights.
Arrivals have more than doubled what the government estimated earlier this month, despite Bangladesh repeatedly saying it cannot accept more Rohingya refugees because resources are already stretched.
“Border vigilance has increased, but managing our 271km (168-mile) border with Myanmar is challenging, especially without a security counterpart on the other side,” said another government official, who spoke on condition of anonymity .
The official said many Rohingya were desperate and were finding ways to cross into Bangladesh.
The government has not yet taken a decision on registering those who have recently entered and are living in refugee camps, the foreign ministry official said.
“If we decide to register them, it could open the floodgates and that's something we can't afford,” he said. “But at the same time, how long can we ignore this problem? That is the real question.”
Bangladesh's caretaker prime minister, Nobel Peace Prize laureate Muhammad Yunus, has called for rapid resettlement of Rohingya in third countries as a long-term solution, but the foreign ministry official said progress on resettlement has been limited.
“Approximately 2,000 people have entered the resettlement program since its resumption in 2022 after a gap of 12 years,” he said, adding that the United States, Canada, Australia, New Zealand and Ireland are among the countries receiving refugees.
