Rohingya influx doesn’t end yet

Every day some 500 to several thousand Rohingya people are still entering Bangladesh through different points, increasing the burden on Bangladesh thanks to the persecution of Rohingyas by Myanmar security forces.

And it’s not known when the influx will come to an end, with no signs of repatriating them to their own lands immediately.

This is how the Refugee Relief and Repatriation Commissioner, Mohammad Abul Kalam, narrated the Rohingya refugee situation while talking to Prothom Alo at Cox’s Bazar Thursday.

The veracity of his remarks was found this morning when this correspondent visited the beach strip of the Bay Bengal.

According to the witnesses, at least 150 Rohingyas entered Bangladesh through a point near Shyamlapur checkpoint along the Marine Drive this morning.

The Rohingyas of several families of a neighbourhood in Myanmar hired three fishing boats to sail the waters of the bay from Myanmar.

They said there were several thousands of Rohingya Muslims waiting near Bangladesh-Myanmar border to enter Bangladesh.

Talking to Prothom Alo at a point at Marine Drive in Teknaf of Cox’s Bazar, one of the newly arrived Rohingyas, Nur Hossain, who along with six members of his family fled the persecution, said they got on a boat at midnight and reached Bangladesh around 5:00am.

“The boatmen forced us to get down in chest-deep cold-water in the sea and some of us were injured while swimming ashore along with their kids,” said Nur Hossain.

He said their boat just followed two other Rohingya-packed boats from Myanmar.

On his arrival, Nur Hossain called up one of his relatives already in the Balukhali Rohingya refugee camp, using the phone of a local, assuring him that they had arrived in Bangladesh successfully and then headed towards the camp along with others.

The Refugee Relief and Repatriation Commissioner said the Rohingyas are entering Bangladesh in the dark – either at night or early in the morning.