DHAKA: Bangladesh has increased vigilance on its border with Myanmar after at least 18,000 Rohingya Muslims crossed the border in recent months to escape escalating violence in Myanmar's western Rakhine state, officials in Dhaka said.
The influx of refugees from Myanmar has increased as fighting escalates between troops of the ruling junta and the Arakan Army, a powerful ethnic militia that recruits its soldiers from the Buddhist majority population.
“Thousands of Rohingya have fled to Bangladesh and many are waiting to cross. The situation is catastrophic,” said a Foreign Ministry official who asked not to be identified 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 an army-led crackdown in Myanmar in 2017. They have little hope of returning to Myanmar as they are largely denied citizenship and other basic rights.
The number of new arrivals has more than doubled from the figure estimated by the government earlier this month, although Bangladesh has repeatedly said it cannot accommodate any more Rohingya refugees because resources are already stretched.
“Vigilance at the border has increased, but managing our 271-kilometer border with Myanmar is challenging, especially without a security partner on the other side,” said another government official, who spoke on condition of anonymity.
The official said many Rohingya were desperate and looking for ways to reach Bangladesh.
The government has not yet made a decision on whether to register those who recently arrived and are living in refugee camps, the Foreign Ministry official said.
“If we decide to register them, that could open the floodgates, and we cannot afford that,” he said. “But at the same time, how long can we ignore this problem? That is the real question.”
The head of Bangladesh's interim government, Nobel Peace Prize winner Muhammad Yunus, called for accelerated resettlement of the Rohingya to third countries as a long-term solution. However, the Foreign Ministry official said progress on this resettlement was limited.
“About 2,000 people have been resettled under the resettlement programme since it resumed in 2022 after a 12-year hiatus,” he said, adding that the United States, Canada, Australia, New Zealand and Ireland were among the countries that had taken in refugees.
