Over 200 Muslim refugees arrested in 2023 for illegally crossing border into Arakan: regime mouthpiece

By Admin 01 Jan 2024

DMG Newsroom
1 January 2024, Buthidaung

A total of 221 Muslim refugees in Bangladesh who illegally crossed the border back into Arakan State were arrested in 2023, according to Rakhine Daily, a mouthpiece of the Arakan State military council.

They were arrested in Buthidaung, Maungdaw, Rathedaung, Thandwe and Ann townships; 156 male and 65 female, with 39 of them being children under the age of 18, according to Rakhine Daily.

Due to the difficult life at refugee camps in Bangladesh, with limited access to health and education services as well as job opportunities, some Muslim refugees cross the border into Myanmar. They typically intend to travel onward to what they hope will be greener pastures in Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand and elsewhere in the region and beyond. 

Ko Aung Myaing, from the Kutupalong refugee camp in Bangladesh, said: “Refugees in Bangladesh face various hardships. It is a living death for them. They don’t know when they will be able to return. Even if they can return, it is not sure if they can live with human dignity. So, they try to go to foreign countries.”

The Muslim refugees, however, often end up being arrested by Myanmar authorities and charged for illegal crossing of the border.

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.

Junta blockading of routes leads to food shortages for Muslim IDPs in Arakan State

In addition to imprisoning Muslims who illegally cross the border into Myanmar, the military regime has barred Muslims in Arakan State from travelling within the state.

In August, the regime granted amnesty for 108 Muslim men and three Muslim women serving their time in prisons for illegally crossing the border. They were deported to Bangladesh.

“The regime has held numerous talks with the international community including Bangladesh [about repatriation of Muslim refugees]. But there has been no progress because the regime has no genuine will [to take back Muslim refugees], and it is only doing it for show,” said a man from a Muslim camp for internally displaced people (IDPs) in Myebon Township.

The regime has held at least three rounds of talks with international organisations and officials from Bangladesh. A Myanmar junta delegation led by Arakan State military council’s social welfare minister U Saw Naing met Muslim refugees in Teknaf, Bangladesh, and also held talks with Bangladeshi authorities on October 31 and November 1.

For the most part, Muslim refugee communities in Bangladesh say they will not be able to return home in the near future due to ongoing fighting between the regime and the Arakan Army.