Rohingya Muslims fleeing to Bangladesh from fighting in Myanmar face the growing danger of sickness and attempts by the Bangladesh authorities to send them home despite a UN appeal that they be allowed to stay. A series of coordinated attacks by Rohingya insurgents on Myanmar security forces on Friday, in the north of Myanmar’s Rakhine State, has triggered a crackdown by Myanmar forces that has sent a stream of Rohingya villagers fleeing to Bangladesh.
It also sparked a mass evacuation of thousands of Buddhist residents of the area. At least 109 people have been killed in the clashes in Myanmar, most of them militants but including members of the security forces and civilians. Bangladesh, which is already host to more than 400,000 Rohingya who have fled persecution in Buddhist-majority Myanmar since the early 1990s, has said it will not accept any more. Bangladesh’s border guards are trying to block the Rohingyas from crossing in, and aim to round up and send back those who do.
Border guard officials told Reuters they had sent back about 550 Rohingya since Monday, via the Naf river that separates the two countries, despite an appeal by UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres for Dhaka to allow Rohingya to seek safety. An estimated 5,000 Rohingya have been able to cross into Bangladesh over the past few days, most slipping in at night over the land border near the Bangladeshi village of Gumdhum.
Many are sick and at least six have died after crossing in, an aid worker said, adding that fear of being caught and sent back meant some refused to seek help. “What we’re seeing is that many Rohingya people are sick,” said the worker with an international agency in Bangladesh who declined to be identified or have his agency identified. “This is because they got stuck in the border before they could enter. It’s mostly women and children.”
“We’re making all out efforts but a rapid response is needed,” the aid worker said. “Some are refraining from getting treatment to avoid arrest.” Thousands of Rohingya are stranded in the no man’s land between the two countries, trying to get into Bangladesh, aid workers and fellow Rohingya say.
