Extortion adds to Rohingyas’ woes

Some dishonest Bangladeshis are collecting money from Rohingyas in the name of giving shelter, taking advantage of hapless condition of the ethnic minority people who are desperately looking for place of shelter in Cox’s Bazar after fleeing violence in Myanmar.
Local people said that while most Bangladeshis were trying to help Rohingyas, a section of people were collecting money from the Rohingyas, who were erecting makeshift shelters in the reserved forests, on hill slops or beside roads.
Rohingyas said that they were forced to give money to those people as they desperately needed a place to take shelter. 
Local administration sources said that they were conducting drives against such extortion.
The Rohingyas at Kutupalang, Balukhali, Thaninkhali, Palangkhali, Mainar Ghona, Tajonirmarkhola, Hakimpara, Ledha and other p[laces of Ukhia and Teknaf upazilas said that they had to pay Tk 500-3,000 as ‘rent’ or ‘possession fee’ to erect a shelter.
They said that they had to pay middlemen for entering Bangladesh and now the rent and possession fee became a double burden on them as they were making the payments selling jewellery and domestic utensils.
Cox’s Bazar district executive magistrate Mohammad Saiful Islam said that they jailed and fined 25 Bangladeshis for ‘collecting money from Rohingyas taking shelter on hills and in reserved forests.’
UN agencies on Sunday said that about 4.36 lakh Rohingyas had entered Bangladesh since August 25, when the violence, what the United Nations termed a textbook example of ethnic cleansing, began in Rakhine state of Myanmar.
Officials estimated that the influx already took to 8.56 lakh the number of Myanmar people living in Bangladesh.
The UNHCR and the IOM expressed fear that the new influx might take to 10 lakh the number of Myanmar nationals in Bangladesh by the end of the year.
The ongoing ethnic cleansing began on August 25, when Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army reportedly attacked dozens of police posts and checkpoints and one military base in Rakhine. The insurgent group, however, said that it made the attacks to pre-empt military attacks on Rohingyas.
Terrified, half-starved, exhausted Rohingyas arrived in Bangladesh in their thousands trekking through hills and crossing rough sea and the River Naf on boat.
Their first destination was registered and unregistered camps at Kutupalang and Nayapara and adjacent areas.
Failing to get a place in the already overcrowded camps, they built makeshift shelters with bamboos and plastic sheets in different areas of Kutupalang, Balukhali, Thayenkhali, Rajapalang areas.
Rohingyas Safika Begum, Hamida Begum and Badiul Alam alleged that, Mohammad Jahangir of Ukhia collected Tk 1,500 from each of them for 15x9 feet land at Kutupalang adjacent to Cox’s Bazar-Teknaf highway. 
Rohingya’s Jarina Begum, Abdul Amin, Fazal Ahmed alleged that one
Fazal Kader Bhutto, a Palangkhali union Awami League leader, was collecting money from them.
Hundreds of Rohinagys were charged Tk 500-1,500 for erecting a makeshift shelter on Balukhali hill, they said.
Fazle Kader denied the allegation, saying, ‘It is totally propaganda against me.’
A number of Rohingyas alleged that Palangkhali Union Parishad acting chairman Nurul Absar Chowdhury were collecting money in the name of rent and possession fee from Rohingyas.
Nurul Absar Chowdhury, also a local Awami League leader, denied the allegations saying that his political opponents were spreading falsehood against him.
The United Nations and international agencies’ multi sectoral rapid assessments done on September 17 said that at Balukhali, although the land belonged to the Forest Department, it was being used by the host community who were charging new arrivals Tk 1,000-1,5000 to erect a shelter.
At Unchiparang, Mainner Ghona, Thankhali, Hakimpara and Tasnimarkhola, new arrival Rohingyas reported that they were being charged Tk 2,000-3,000 to access the land as it was being used for vegetable gardens by the host community before the influx.
At Lambashiya, East Dighalia and Modhur Chara, Rohingyas were being charged Tk 300-500 to access forest land, and they had to pay Tk 500-1000 per month for as rent. 
‘Even after paying rent, many are afraid that they will be evicted from the land,’ said the assessment report.
When half a million Rohingays are living in absence of required shelter, food, medication and sanitation, the World Health Organisation on Monday warned about risk of an outbreak of diarrhoea at the makeshift Rohingya camps.
‘Water, sanitation needs to improve to prevent #cholera outbreak in #Rohingya camps & settlements in Cox’s Bazar, #Bangladesh via @WHOSEARO,’ said WHO official Twitter account on Monday.
Directorate General of Health Services control room said that about 5,200 diarrheal patients had so far taken treatment from different health service providers.
State minister for health Zahid Maleque, while presiding over a meeting on country’s preparation for facing disaster and epidemics on Monday, sought $250 million in aid from the World Bank to tackle the health needs of Rohingyas, said a health ministry release.
UN high commissioner for Refugees Filippo Grandi assured Bangladesh that UNHCR would provide Tk 35 crore to make roads inside the Kutupalnag camp that housed thousands of Rohingyas, said a disaster management and relief ministry release.
Filippo Grandi made the promise when he went to meet disaster management and relief minister Mofazzal Hossain Chowdhury Maya at the ministry.
The relief minister at a briefing said that the number of Myanmar’s ethnic minority Rohingyas fled to Bangladesh since August 25 exceeded 4,50,000.
He, however, said that in case the crisis lingered, the government planned to relocate them to offshore island Bhasanchar also called as Thengar Char.
Asked if the Rohingyas who fled to Bangladesh would be given refugee status, disaster management secretary Shah Kamal said, ‘No decision has been made yet on the matter.’
Border Guard Bangladesh director general Major General Abul Hossain on Monday said that Bangladesh showed restraint against instigation by Myanmar security forces so that it could divert the world’s attention from the persecution of Rohingyas.
‘They have violated rules. They have instigated us. Had we responded to it, another front might have been opened and the world’s attention might have been diverted. Negotiation and war can go simultaneously but war brings nothing good,’ Abul Hossain said after distributing food among Rohingyas at Teknaf 
He said that Bangladesh would raise issues of threatened security, violation of rules and laying land mines along the border in a meeting proposed by Myanmar to be held in November.
Women rights organisation Naripokkho in a statement on Monday said that many Rohingya women and children were at risk of human trafficking. It also stressed the need for priorities of nutritious food assistance for pregnant, new and lactating mothers and their children in relief distribution.
It also demanded engagement of more women relief workers to distribute assistance to the Rohingyas as 80 per cent of them were women and children.

News Courtesy: www.newagebd.net