5/1/2019 Rohingya camps to go under fortified nighttime surveillance | New Age

Wednesday, May 01, 2019

Rohingya camps to go under fortified nighttime

surveillance
Shahidul Islam Chowdhury | Published at 01:44am on May 01, 2019

The government is set to strengthen surveillance on Rohingya camps from security perspectives at
night amid allegations of activities of armed groups inside camps along the borders with
Myanmar.
The allegations of activities of armed groups inside camps ‘is not unfounded,’ Refugee Relief and
Repatriation Commissioner Mohammad Abul Kalam told New Age in Dhaka on Tuesday.
Kalam said this when his attention was drawn about allegations of movement of [Burmese] armed
groups inside the camps in Bangladesh. ‘We have already discussed the matter in a meeting with
representatives of all government agencies including the border guards, the DGFI [Directorate
General of Forces Intelligence] and the NSI [National Security Intelligence].
‘All quarters have agreed to strengthen surveillance for round the clock,’ he said.
Brussels-based International Crisis Group said in a report that criminal gangs and militants ‘are
increasing their grip’ on Rohingya refugee camps in Bangladesh committing killings and
abductions with ‘impunity.’
‘Refugees express serious concerns about the personal security, and militants and gangs are
intimidating, kidnapping and killing with impunity,’ the ICG said in the report released on April
25.
Murders and other forms of violence ‘are an almost night occurrence,’ the ICG said with urging
the Bangladesh authorities to toughen its police presence saying that gangs and extremist groups
were now operating openly in the camps.
Stressing the need for early resolve of the protracted Rohingya crisis with keeping hope for the
community alive, Kalam said at a workshop that there ‘are risks of radicalisation’ of Rohingya and
‘anything can happen if they lose hope.’
BRAC, a Bangladesh-based international NGO, organised the workshop on Rohingya crisis.
Bhasan Char Island could offer more livelihood options compared to Cox’s Bazar area, Kalam said
adding that the people who would be voluntarily willing to move would be transferred to Bhasan
Char.
Bangladesh National Human Rights Commission chairman Kazi Reazul Hoque said international
communities must mount pressure on Myanmar as the Rohingya crisis might not be resolved ‘in a
century’ unless the persons involved in atrocities ‘are tried by the ICC’ [International Criminal
Court].
Saleemul Huq, director of International Centre for Climate Change Adaptation and Development,
said a longer term preparations
www.newagebd.net/print/article/71241 ‘are required’ as Rohingyas are vulnerable to climate-induced 1/2
5/1/2019 Rohingya camps to go under fortified nighttime surveillance | New Age

disasters as they have been staying in huge number in a congested place.

Describing the Rohingya camps areas part of ‘sensitive ecosystem,’ IUCN Bangladesh country
representative Raquibul Amin alleged that environment related issues got less priority in the
government’s agenda.
Stressing the need for mid-term and long-term solutions of the Rohingya crisis, Steven Corliss,
UNHCR Bangladesh country representative, said ‘even if repatriation begins tomorrow,
transferring over a million people will take several years.’
Suggesting the NGOs to keep their operations ‘limited in humanitarian issues only,’ NGO Affairs
Bureau director general KM Abdus Salam said the NGOs should not ‘speak against repatriation’ of
Rohingya people.
ActionAid country director Farah Kabir, Richard F Ragan, country director World Food
Programme, and BRAC director Sajedul Hasan also spoke at the function.
More than 7,00,000 Rohingyas, mostly women, children and aged people, entered Bangladesh
after fleeing unbridled murder, arson and rape during ‘security operations’ by Myanmar military
in Rakhine, what the United Nations denounced as ethnic cleansing and genocide, beginning from
August 25, 2017.
The ongoing Rohingya influx took the number of undocumented Myanmar nationals and
registered refugees in Bangladesh to about 11,16,000, according to estimates by UN agencies and
Bangladesh foreign ministry.
About 60 Rohingya people have been killed in the camps since the 2017 Rohingya influx, Cox’s
Bazar district police.

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