On a quest to change his fortune, Salamat Ullah left his home in Teknaf for Malaysia in October last year.
Crimes, particularly those related to narcotics and murders, have witnessed a significant rise inside the Cox’s Bazar Rohingya camps over the last seven months.
The EU will continue to support the Rohingya people for their right to return to their homeland, said Eamon Gilmore, the EU’s special representative for human rights.
Amid mounting global pressure, a 17-member Myanmar delegation yesterday started verifying the identities of the Rohingya refugees in Teknaf, as the first group of Myanmar’s displaced people is expected to be repatriated in a few months.
Amid the armed conflicts along the border over the last two months, gang members living in the no-man’s-land entered Bangladesh and engaged in criminal activities, including murders, at the refugee camps, police and locals said.
Panic grips the locals in bordering areas of Cox’s Bazar’s Whaikhyang and Bandarban’s Tambru, as heavy gunfire and intermittent shelling on the Myanmar side have been heard again after a pause of 10 days.
As firing and mortar shelling in Myanmar were now heard from Ukhiya border of Cox’s Bazar yesterday, the local authorities warned the boat owners of not carrying Rohingyas amid fear of their fresh entry.
Amid incessant gunfire and mortar shelling in Myanmar close to the Bangladesh border, the local administration is planning to evacuate around 300 families in Ghumdhum union of Bandarban’s Naikhongchhari upazila.
Continued influx of Rohingyas, unplanned settlement of refugees and haphazard development activities by many organisations make
Health officials in Cox's Bazar fear spread of HIV/AIDS in the refugee camps as a rising number of Rohingyas have been diagnosed with the disease.
Some 6,300 Rohingya people, mostly women and children, have been stuck in no-man's land along the Naikhyangchhari border since August 27.
An estimated 12,000 Rohingyas crossed into Bangladesh yesterday as severe food crisis and violence in Myanmar have triggered a fresh exodus. Besides setting fire to Rohingya homes in Rakhine State, the Myanmar army and local Buddhists are burning shops, markets and even crops fields, claimed the newly arrived refugees.
Four-year-old Nur Khan cringes in fear whenever he sees someone unknown near his shack in Ukhia of Cox's Bazar. When he comes across anyone holding any object, he shudders. There's a reason for that: five weeks ago, the child witnessed both his parents being brutally murdered.
Six-year-old Jashim sat, dressed in a grey T-shirt and trousers smeared with mud, amid piles of donated clothes strewn along the Cox's Bazar-Teknaf road. He suddenly started running after a slow moving car.
As the sun's first light fell across the hills of Balukhali in Ukhia, a frailly built Mohammad Syed could be seen trying his best to walk quicker with the help of a wooden stick.
Mohammad Zafar held one of his twin sons tight in his arms and kept the other in the lap as the trawler bobbed up and down in rough waters amid heavy rain.
Dark clouds started to gather on the horizon near Teknaf yesterday morning and soon they covered the entire sky. The wind picked up
7:00pm As the last relief truck departs, Shafiuallah Kata Pahar, a group of hillocks, reverts back to a strange sense of calm. People, carrying sacks of rice and packs of food, begin to return to their tents. Suddenly, the hills seem to be dotted with fireflies. Lamps and candles masquerade as shining stars in the sky on a dark night, lighting up one by one.
