Problems will remain till Rohingyas return to Myanmar: BGB DG

The problem of Rohingya Muslim refugees is a big one and unless they return to Myanmar, the problem will remain for India and other countries, Border Guard Bangladesh (BGB) director general major general Shafeenul Islam said on Friday after the five-day meeting with his Border Security Force (BSF) counterpart Rakesh Asthana in Guwahati, the capital of Indian state of Assam.

Islam said that Rohingya Muslims are not only found in India, they are found across the world including countries like Thailand, Indonesia and Malaysia.

“The Rohingya Muslim refugee problem would be solved when they would go back to their country, Myanmar, at the earliest otherwise the problem would remain for India and other countries,” the BGB DG said.

He said: “We are regularly nabbing the Rohingyas at the border, escaping from the Cox's Bazar camps. There are Rohingya settlements as well. They also have UNHCR cards. They always try to get inside... To meet their relatives in the Bangladesh camps.”

Asthana said that Rohingya Muslims are being occasionally caught in different parts of the country by the state security forces.

“Both BSF and BGB are committed to stop their infiltration and exfiltration and we are taking action not only against the Rohingyas, but also against all illegal trespassers,” the BSF head said.

A senior BSF officer said that in the all important five-day Border Coordination Conference (BCC), BSF chief Asthana led the 12-member delegation while the 11-member BGB team was headed by Islam.

The DG level meeting or the BCC between the BSF and BGB was held first time outside the national capital.

Rohingyas from refugee camps in southeastern Bangladesh often enter into the northeastern states of India illegally in search of jobs or get trapped in human trafficking.

According to the security officials, at least 35 Rohingya Muslims from Myanmar, including women and children, have been detained in the past one month for illegally entering into northeast India.

Over 738,000 Rohingyas from Rakhine in western Myanmar have taken shelter in the camps in Cox's Bazar since the beginning of the ethnic troubles on 25 August 2017, following a wave of violence and persecution, which has been described by the United Nations as attempted ethnic cleansing.

Four northeastern states of India - Arunachal Pradesh (520 km), Manipur (398 km), Nagaland (215 km) and Mizoram (510 km) - share 1,643 km unfenced borders with Myanmar while Tripura (856 km), Meghalaya (443 km), Mizoram (318 km) and Assam (263 km) share 1,880 km borders with Bangladesh.