Arakan military council mouthpiece: 100 arrests for illegal border crossings in Maungdaw over 8 months

By Admin 22 Sep 2023

DMG Newsroom
22 September 2023, Maungdaw

Among the Muslims who fled to Bangladesh from Maungdaw District in Arakan State in 2017, dozens have been arrested after crossing the border back into Myanmar illegally, according to junta-affiliated media.

Rakhine Daily, a mouthpiece of the Arakan State military council, regularly reports on arrests of Muslims crossing the border illegally. According to a compilation of reports by Rakhine Daily, about 100 Muslims were arrested over the past eight months. 

Among the Muslim arrestees, about 80% are men and boys, and approximately 20% are women and girls. Ten are under the age of 18.

“Muslims have been in the refugee camps in Bangladesh for more than six years, so they are tired of looking for jobs, hungry and living in cramped conditions, so they return to their homeland,” said U Khin Aung, a translator and writer (Muslim). 

More than 700,000 Muslims fled to Bangladesh when the Myanmar military carried out brutal so-called “area clearance operations” in the aftermath of the Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army’s attacks on multiple border guard police outposts in 2017. 

Muslims who illegally crossed the border and entered Maungdaw District were prosecuted under Section 13(1) and Section 13(5) of the Immigration Act and sentenced to prison terms by the respective township courts.

“Those who are caught illegally entering the Muslim community are sentenced to three to five years in prison under the Immigration Act,” said a Muslim man in Buthidaung who did not want to be named. “The children have been released after obtaining guarantees from the relevant administrators in the villages. Among those who entered illegally, there were those who were not caught and escaped.”

DMG contacted Maungdaw Township administrator U Kam Tun Aung to find out about the arrest of Muslims crossing the border illegally, but he could not be reached.

“The illegal entry of Muslims over the border fence shows the weakness of border security,” said U Aung Thaung Shwe, a former Arakan State lawmaker for Buthidaung Township. “In order to reduce illegal entry, the relevant authorities want those arrested to act lawfully, without bribery.”

The junta has said it has arranged to initially bring back more than 1,000 Hindu and Muslim people from Bangladesh. But it has yet to announce a specific date for the repatriation. 

At the invitation of Myanmar’s military regime, a group of Bangladeshi officials and 20 Muslim refugees arrived in northern Arakan State on May 5, and toured the Taungpyo Letwae, Nga Khu Ra and Hla Poe Kaung transit camps.