The government on Wednesday decided to increase the security around the Rohingya refugee camps in Cox’s Bazar in the wake of recent incidents.
The decision was taken at the first meeting of a recently formed a national committee held at the secretariat.
The government in December formed the inter-ministerial committee to coordinate and manage overall activities, including law and order, relating to forcibly displaced Myanmar-nationals in the camp areas of Bangladesh.
Confirming the decision of the meeting, home minister Asaduzzaman Khan, who is the convener of the committee, said they have also asked army complete the fencing works and construction of watchtower in the camp quickly.
The committee also decided to continue the ongoing initiatives of repatriating the Rohingyas to Myanmar, he said.
Some 8,60,000 Rohingyas, mostly women, children and aged people, entered Bangladesh fleeing unbridled murder, arson and rape during ‘security operations’ by Myanmar military in Rakhine, what the United Nations denounced as ethnic cleansing and genocide, beginning from August 25, 2017.
The latest Rohingya influx took the number of undocumented Myanmar nationals and registered refugees in Bangladesh to over 1.2 million, according to estimates by UN agencies and Bangladesh foreign ministry.
The government has relocated over 3,400 Rohingya people from camps in Cox’s Bazar to Bhasan Char, an island in Hatiya upazila of Noakhali, as a part of a plan to relocate about 1,00,000 people to decongest the camps on security and safety grounds in December.
mj/
