Hundreds of Rohingya
Muslims have crossed into Bangladesh in recent days, following a fresh military
build-up in Myanmar's western state of Rakhine.
Rohingya community
leaders said on Wednesday that at least 500 members had made the difficult
journey into the neighboring country. The refugees claim that they have been
abused by soldiers in Myanmar.
Abu Toyyob, 25, said
he escaped with his seven-member family as the military vandalized houses
belonging to the Rohingya and detained young men.
"They arrested
my younger brother from home and injured my two-year-old son by kicking him
with boots," Toyyob was quoted as saying by AFP. "I immediately set
off with my family and crossed the Naf two nights ago," he added,
referring to the river between Myanmar and Bangladesh.
An official with the
International Organisation for Migration said the IOM was aware of new arrivals
in Bangladesh. The numbers were "not as alarming as the October
influx," the official said. The UN agency seeks settlements for unregistered
Rohingya refugees.
UN special
rapporteur Yanghee Lee recently voiced alarm about reports that a Myanmar army
battalion had flown into Rakhine to help local authorities boost security in
the region.
The latest influx
follows a months-long bloody military crackdown on the mainly Muslim minority
in Myanmar last year.
Nearly 400,000
Rohingya refugees are living in squalid refugee camps and makeshift settlements
in the resort district of Cox's Bazar, which borders Rakhine. Their numbers
swelled last October, when more than 70,000 Rohingya villagers began arriving.
They are increasingly unwelcome in Muslim-majority Bangladesh. Dhaka has
floated the idea of relocating tens of thousands of Rohingya refugees to a
remote, flood-prone island off its coast, despite opposition from rights
groups.
Bangladeshi border
guard said it had stepped up patrols after reports of a military build-up on
the other side of the river.
Some 75,000 people
have fled from the Muslim-majority northern part of Rakhine to Bangladesh since
Myanmar’s military crackdown began, according to a UN report.
Numerous accounts
have already been provided by eyewitnesses of summary executions, rapes and
arson attacks against Muslims since the crackdown began. The military has
blocked access to Rakhine and banned journalists and aid workers from entering
the zone.
The treatment of the
roughly one million Rohingya in Myanmar has emerged as the country’s most
contentious human rights issue.
Myanmar has long
faced international criticism for its treatment of Rohingya Muslims, who are
denied citizenship and live in conditions rights groups have compared to those
of the Blacks under the former apartheid regime in South Africa.