COX'S BAZAR, Sept 5: Continuous violence in Myanmar is increasing the Rohingya influx into Bangladesh every day.
Despite
pushing back some 2,675 Rohingyas by Border Guard Bangladesh (BGB) on
Tuesday, several hundred members of the ethnic minority sneaked into
Bangladesh territory on the day.
The intruders did not get shelter in either registered or unregistered Rohingya camps.
They were found erecting makeshifts shelters for themselves at Balukhali Dhala under Ukhia upazila.
No fewer than 100,000 Rohingyas are reported to have taken shelters there.
Many were found under the open sky having failed to get into the camp.
Lalu
Majhi, President of the Balukhali Camp, told the Daily Observer that it
was a difficult task to give shelter to the ethnic minority group.
At least 10,000 Rohingyas have entered the camp in the last three days, he added.
Several hundred took shelter on the hills and isolated places.
Many villages in Myanmar near Bangladesh border had been found burning for the last two days.
Nur
Mohammad, 25, an inhabitant of Tombazar at Kiongdong under Buchidong,
who fled to Bangladesh on Tuesday, said that he began his journey for
Bangladesh on August 25.
"We saw the army indiscriminately killing people by opening fire and setting houses ablaze at Tambru," he said.
Anwar,
another Rohingya, said, "Their houses were torched by the army and the
Mog, (members of a tribal community). I suspect at least one to two
persons died in each house."
Meanwhile AFP adds, nearly 125,000
mostly Rohingya refugees have entered Bangladesh since a fresh upsurge
of violence in Myanmar on August 25, the United Nations said on Tuesday,
as fears grow of a humanitarian crisis in the overstretched camps.
The UN said 123,600 had crossed the border in the past 11 days from Myanmar's violence-wracked Rakhine State.
Their
arrival has raised fears of a fresh humanitarian disaster as already
crowded camps in Bangladesh -- home to around 400,000 Rohingya refugees
before the latest crisis -- struggle to cope with the influx.
Many
are sleeping in the open air and are in dire need of food and water
after walking for days to reach safety, the UN's main coordinator in
Bangladesh said in a report.
"As a result of flood-like arrivals of
new refugees, a massive humanitarian crisis is unfolding here," said the
prominent Bangladeshi rights campaigner Nur Khan Liton.
"People are
staying in refugee camps, on the roads, school yards and under open sky.
They are clearing forest to create new settlements. There is an acute
crisis of water and food."
The latest unrest broke out when a
Rohingya militant group launched a series of coordinated ambushes on
Myanmar security posts in response to what it said was a fresh
crackdown.
The Rohingya are seen as illegal immigrants in Myanmar and have suffered decades of persecution, according to rights groups.
Unverifiable
testimony from those who have fled has alleged tit-for-tat mass
killings and villages being torched by the army, Buddhist mobs and
Rohingya militants.
In addition to the Rohingya, at least 11,000
Rakhine Buddhists and Hindus have fled arson and attacks by militants to
camps inside Myanmar, according to the last government update.
Bangladesh border officials say those fleeing are also facing the risk of landmines on the frontier between the two countries.
On
Tuesday, two Rohingya children were injured by an apparent landmine
blast as they tried to flee unrest in Myanmar, border guard commander
Manzurul Hasan Khan told AFP.
"They stepped onto some sort of explosives this morning and one of them lost his leg," Khan said.
The
incident came after a Rohingya woman had a leg blown off in the same
area on Monday, raising fears that the border area had been deliberately
mined.
It is not known what caused the blast, which he said was well
inside Myanmar territory, but Khan said he believed it was a landmine.
All
three have been taken to hospitals in Cox's Bazar, the nearest city to
the border, where hundreds of thousands of Rohingya -- a stateless
Muslim minority in mainly Buddhist Myanmar -- have taken shelter in
camps.
Khan said many Rohingyas were also entering Bangladesh with
bullet wounds, although it was impossible to say how these were
sustained as media access to the worst-hit parts of Myanmar's
neighbouring Rakhine State is limited.
Rakhine has been a crucible of
religious violence since 2012, when riots erupted. Scores of Rohingyas
were killed and tens of thousands of people -- most of them from the
Muslim minority -- were forced into displacement camps.
But the current round of fighting, which broke out when Rohingya militants ambushed security installations, is the worst yet.
Myanmar's army has said nearly 400 people have died in the fighting that ensued, including 370 Rohingya militants.
