Hundreds of Rakhine Buddhists have fled Bangladesh to neighboring Myanmar in recent months, alleging that they were persecuted for their faith and felt unsafe living in that country.
Those who fled were mostly from Ywar Taw District, Yin Gar Marti District and the town of Chittagong. They are now being sheltered in Maungdaw and Kyauktaw townships in northern Rakhine State.
“Rakhine people from Bangladesh first entered Maungdaw on October 4 following the communal violence that affected western Myanmar last year,” said Sayadaw U Arsara, a Buddhist monk from Baho Kyaung Monastery in Maungdaw, one of the refuges for the displaced Rakhines. “They brought with them tales of persecution, physical threats, and socio-economic discrimination.
“In Maungdaw there are 257 households of refugees, comprising 520 males and 547 females,” said the monk. “At first the WFP [UN World Food Programme] provided rice, but they stopped delivering it because they said these people were not real refugees.
Another Buddhist monk, U Soe Yi, from the Shwe Kyaung Monastery in Yin-Ga-Mar-Te Township, said that the Buddhist refugees described how they were forced to adopt Islamic practices such as men being told to wear taqiyah caps and women forced to wear saris.
“They said they were harassed if they not obey instructions to wear Islamic dress,” said U Soe yi.
Daw Nyo Aye from the Rakhine Women’s Network said that 74 people had travelled to a shelter in Kyauktaw because they did not dare to stay in Maungdaw where many Muslims live.
Zaw Zaw, the director of an NGO called the Wan Lat Foundation, said that the UNHCR had delayed in classifying the Rakhines as legitimate refugees, and called on the world body to address the issue.
It is estimated that more than 300,000 Rakhine Buddhists live in Bangladesh.
