Maungdaw, Arakan State: Immigration Department officials along with Burma’s border security force (Nasaka ) will demolish some houses of the Rohingya following an order issued today in the village, said a member of the village authority.
 
The officials went to the Rohingya village and checked the family list and house. When they found one family list with two houses in one compound they ordered demolition of one house, the member said.
 
In Arakan State, Rohingya families stay in one compound in one house when their families are small. But when family members increase, they divide the family into two houses within a compound but have only one family list, said a school teacher from Maungdaw.
 
Today, the authorities are looking up family lists and houses and ordering demolition of homes if they find two or three in one family list. It happened today in Maung Hnama village, he added.
 
I have four sons. Two were married so there are more members. So I told them to build houses near my house in my compound. But we have only one family list. I tried to divide them from my list but I could not as the authorities are not issuing new family lists. Now, the monsoon is on and if we demolish the house they will have no place to stay because my house is small for all the members to stay together, said an elder from Maung Hnama village.
 
“This is a new tactic to harass the Rohingya community in the rainy season and to compel us to leave our homeland or to extort money from the community for not demolishing the house,” said a student in Maungdaw.
 
Recently, the authorities sealed the houses of those who fled their homeland to Bangladesh following persecution by the Burmese regime. The families who buy or get a house (Flee persons’ house) as a brother or as relatives are facing trouble in the monsoon season for staying with their families, said  a father of three children from Shewza village.