Rohingya refugees in Cox’s Bazar, left, and a member of Border Guard Bangladesh (BGB) near the Bangladesh-Myanmar border. The refugees are often kidnapped by different Myanmar forces. (Source photos by Reuters and Getty Images)
DHAKA — Four Rohingya refugees were fishing early in the morning near the border at Cox’s Bazar in southern Bangladesh earlier this month when they were abducted by members of the Arakan Army, Myanmar insurgents.
Luckily for these four, Border Guard Bangladesh managed to secure their release the next day, after negotiating with the Arakan Army. It made a clear contrast to the 55 Bangladeshi fishermen who were released by the Buddhist-dominated insurgent group in mid-April, days and months after they were kidnapped.
There has been a spate of kidnappings of Rohingya refugees and Bangladeshis at the border by the Arakan Army and the Myanmar military. While the latter allegedly forces the victims to fight for them, the former kidnaps primarily for fundraising purposes, according to officials in Dhaka.
“Due to the BGB’s [Rohingya-related] activity and dominance on the border, the members of the Arakan Army involved in the abduction [of four fishermen] have quickly settled the issue,” Ashiqur Rahman, a lieutenant colonel of Border Guard Bangladesh at Cox’s Bazar district, told Nikkei Asia in a phone interview.
Bangladesh’s interim government, led by Muhammad Yunus, has established contact with the Arakan Army, Foreign Affairs Adviser Touhid Hossain told reporters last month.
He said then that it was for the country’s “own interest” as the insurgent group had full control of Myanmar’s Rakhine state which borders Bangladesh, having wrested control from the military regime.
The Arakan Army did not respond to Nikkei Asia’s inquiry by publication time.
Naypyitaw had expressed disappointment with Bangladesh’s engagement with the Arakan Army, but the foreign affairs adviser pointed to the flood of Rohingya refugees from across the border as a reason for that move. Over a million Muslims from Rakhine state have taken refuge in the district since 2017, forced out by Myanmar military forces that had attacked villages and set homes on fire.
Bangladesh had tried to send the stateless people back ever since, to little avail. As another overture, Hossain said last month that Bangladesh will help the U.N. supply food and emergency relief to Rakhine state, if and when required.
Over 118,000 Rohingya refugees have entered Bangladesh since November 2023, most during June and July last year when fighting in Rakhine state intensified, according to Bangladeshi officials. Most of the newly arrived Rohingyas are staying with their friends and relatives in the camps. Some are sheltering in schools inside the camps.
The Bangladesh government and the UNHCR have collected their fingerprints and completed their registration. In late April, the UNHCR requested Dhaka to build homes for the newly arrived.
“Our camp area is fully occupied. No more land [left] there to build new homes,” Mohammed Mizanur Rahman, refugee relief and repatriation commissioner of Bangladesh, told Nikkei over the phone.
Rohingya refugees hold placards while attending an event with U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres and Muhammad Yunus, chief adviser of the Bangladeshi interim government, at a Rohingya refugee camp in Cox’s Bazar, Bangladesh, on March 14. © Reuters“We informed the UNCHR that we will try to accommodate the newcomers in the abandoned community centers after renovation,” he said.
Rahman said that he heard that an attempt is underway to change the demography in Rakhine. “The Arakan Army is trying to wipe out Rohingyas from the state permanently.”
Bangladesh has been pushing Myanmar to allow the refugees back to their homes. Khalilur Rahman, Bangladesh’s national security adviser, met with Than Swe, Myanmar’s foreign minister, in Bangkok in April.
During the meeting, Myanmar side confirmed that out of a list of 800,000 Rohingya people in Bangladesh, 180,000 are eligible to return and another 70,000 are undergoing additional scrutiny.
The Arakan Army have been accused of torturing Rohingya people for alleged harboring members of Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army (ARSA), a Muslim insurgency group based in Rakhine state. It has accused Rohingya refugees of engaging with Myanmar’s military regime forces to weaken the Arakan Army’s control of the state.
Hasan, 17, fled Rakhine and arrived a few weeks ago at Cox’s Bazar where he is staying at a camp with his mother and younger brother.
“The Arakan Army is torturing us, using as forced laborers, forcing us to fight junta forces, and killing Rohingya people,” he said. “They are occupying our homes and land.”
A Rohingya couple shows the scars and blisters from their journey out of Rakhine state after the Arakan Army looted supplies and expelled them from their homes, at a refugee camp in Bangladesh, on Nov. 22, 2024. © ReutersHasan said while his family was fleeing from Rakhine with others, a couple of people in the group were killed. “We could reach Bangladesh only by God’s grace.”
Mohammad Idris, a Rohingya refugee who has been staying at a camp for years, told Nikkei that he heard from newcomers that the Arakan Army has been torturing the Rohingya people forcing them to flee.
“We want to go back to our homeland. But our safety and security has to be ensured,” he said. “We want citizenship in Myanmar, and get back our lands and properties there.”
Ansar Ali, another Rohingya living in the camp, father of two girls and a boy, said “the situation in Rakhine is horrible.”
“The Arakan Army is more brutal than junta forces. If you send us back without ensuring safety by the U.N. forces, that will be suicidal for us,” he told Nikkei.
Mohammad Sohrab Hossain, a professor of political science at the University of Dhaka, said resolving the border issue is almost impossible without cooperation from regional and international communities.
“Unless the U.N. and other superpowers, including China and India, intervene, it won’t be solved,” he said.
The article appeared in the asia.nikkei