Teknaf, Bangladesh: Thirteen Arakanese Rohingya were arrested by the BGB (Bangladesh Border Guard) at the Nila border yesterday while attempting to cross the border illegally into Bangladesh. Later, they were pushed back to Burma, said a source from Nila close to BGB.
The group was arrested at about 1:50 pm yesterday while trying to climb to the bank of the Bangladesh side after crossing the Naf River with a rowboat near Nila Village in Teknaf. A group of BGB from Nila, led by BGB officer Nurul Amin, saw the boat with the Arakanese Rohingya and went to the spot to arrest the 13 Rohingya including women and children.
It has not been confirmed why the group crossed the Burma-Bangladesh border, but some said that they want to seek work in Bangladesh as they did not have jobs in Burma. Most Arakanese Rohingya are jobless in their own country. Some come to take medical treatment, while others come to visit their relatives in the refugee camps.
After the arrest, the arrestees were not handed over to the police. Instead, the BGB personnel pushed back all of them to Burma at about 3:30 pm at the same point, said a local from Zaila Para of Nila.
The arrestees were identified as Abul Hasim (28), son of Abu Taher, Nurul Islam (38), son of Beku Meah, Zakir Ahmed (50), Mohamed Hashim (20), son of Rohim Ali, Mohamed Alam (20), son of Zahir Ahmed, Abul Alam (18), son of Mohamed Ali, Mohamed Rashid (26), son of Hasu Meah, Zafar Alam (30), son of Mohamed Alam, Mohamed Sultan (50), son of Abdu Shukur, Mohamed Feroz Ahmed (18), son of Zakir Ahmed, Ms. Prami (15), daughter of Fokir Mohamed, Ms. Nur Bahar (30), and her daughter Nur Sina (7-months old).
One of the BGB officers from Nila BOP said that the operation was launched by BGB personnel of Battalion 42 of Teknaf.
Recently, a former Deputy Commissioner (DC) Ziauddin Choudhury, who now works for an international organization in USA, gave some possible remarks to solve the issue of the Arakanese Rohingya refugees.
“We have to stop this unending Rohingya migration in our eastern border. Refugees should be registered in squatter camps and villages, with the help of local people. We need also to keep on engaging in continuous dialogue with the Burmese authorities to prevent recurrence of happenings that force the Rohingyas to emigrate.”
“Rohingyas have been crossing Bangladesh-Burma border (from Cox’s Bazar to Teknaf) citing the complaints of forced labor, land confiscation, religious intolerance, rape and other forms of persecution by the Burmese military regime.”
“They refuse to go back expressing apprehension of persecution in the land they left behind. Therefore, we cannot forcibly repatriate any refugee to a land where they apprehended persecution of any kind.”
“How do we deal with this problem? We can neither absorb this surplus population in our crowded land, nor can we get rid of them. “
