• Burmese
Tuesday, July 8, 2025
No Result
View All Result
NEWSLETTER
The Irrawaddy
30 °c
Yangon
  • Home
  • News
    • Burma
    • Politics
    • World
    • Asia
    • Myanmar’s Crisis & the World
    • Ethnic Issues
    • War Against the Junta
    • Junta Cronies
    • Conflicts In Numbers
    • Junta Watch
    • Fact Check
    • Investigation
    • Myanmar-China Watch
    • Obituaries
  • Politics
  • Business
  • Opinion
    • Commentary
    • Guest Column
    • Analysis
    • Editorial
    • Stories That Shaped Us
    • Letters
  • Junta Watch
  • Ethnic Issues
  • War Against the Junta
  • In Person
    • Interview
    • Profile
  • Books
  • Donation
  • Home
  • News
    • Burma
    • Politics
    • World
    • Asia
    • Myanmar’s Crisis & the World
    • Ethnic Issues
    • War Against the Junta
    • Junta Cronies
    • Conflicts In Numbers
    • Junta Watch
    • Fact Check
    • Investigation
    • Myanmar-China Watch
    • Obituaries
  • Politics
  • Business
  • Opinion
    • Commentary
    • Guest Column
    • Analysis
    • Editorial
    • Stories That Shaped Us
    • Letters
  • Junta Watch
  • Ethnic Issues
  • War Against the Junta
  • In Person
    • Interview
    • Profile
  • Books
  • Donation
No Result
View All Result
The Irrawaddy
No Result
View All Result
Home News Burma

Rohingya Refugees Test Bangladeshi Welcome as Prices Rise and Repatriation Stalls

Reuters by Reuters
February 28, 2018
in Burma
Reading Time: 3 mins read
0 0
A A
Kutupalong Refugee Camp, Bangladesh

Kutupalong Refugee Camp, Bangladesh

3.5k
VIEWS
Share on FacebookShare on Twitter

KUTUPALONG REFUGEE CAMP, Bangladesh — The first Rohingya refugees who arrived on Jorina Katun’s farmland in Bangladesh last year were worn out and traumatized after fleeing violence in neighboring Myanmar. They wept and begged to stay, and Katun, moved by their plight, said yes.

“I really regret that,” she said. “They said they would stay for only a month. They’re still here and more are coming.” Katun now has 25 Rohingya families living on a patch of land where she used to grow rice and vegetables.

Since August, nearly 700,000 Rohingya have crossed from Myanmar’s Rakhine State into Bangladesh. Makeshift camps housing the Rohingya sprawl across thousands of acres of what was once a government forest reserve, butting up against — and sometimes overwhelming — Bangladeshi homes and land. Jorina Katun lives on the edge of the largest such camp.

RelatedPosts

Bangladesh Recalls Ambassador to Myanmar

Bangladesh Recalls Ambassador to Myanmar

May 29, 2025
2.9k
Paranoid Junta Turns to Foreign Expertise After 4 Years of Chaos; and More

Paranoid Junta Turns to Foreign Expertise After 4 Years of Chaos; and More

May 10, 2025
1.6k
Myanmar Junta Rejects Bangladeshi Call for Rohingya State

Myanmar Junta Rejects Bangladeshi Call for Rohingya State

May 2, 2025
10.4k

Officials and aid workers fear that the welcome is wearing thin, due to the unprecedented number of refugees and growing doubts over whether Myanmar will ever take them back.

Repatriation was due to begin in January under an agreement signed by Myanmar and Bangladesh. But the plan has stalled due to safety and logistical concerns, and meanwhile Rohingya continue to flee across the border.

“We’ve accommodated them, but for how long?” said Kazi Abdur Rahman, a deputy district administrator in Cox’s Bazar. “Our crop fields are destroyed. Our forests are destroyed…It’s a huge impact for the whole community.”

So far, local people have been remarkably tolerant, with many feeling duty-bound to help fellow Muslims they see as being oppressed because of their religion. There have only been a handful of anti-Rohingya protests, all small and peaceful.

But many also blame the Rohingya for driving up food prices and stealing jobs, and officials worry that the refugees bring with them an increased risk of disease, militant activity and drug trafficking.

Residents have been told to report any Rohingya seen outside the camps, said Rahman. “It’s for our security, so they can’t get up to any terrorist activity,” he said.

He said he had no evidence that the Rohingya were involved in crime, but noted they were poor, desperate and “very vulnerable to evil forces.”

The Cheapest Worker

Before the current crisis, Bangladesh was already home to 300,000 Rohingya refugees who had fled previous bouts of violence in Myanmar. Now, in Ukhia and Teknaf, two sub-districts near the Myanmar border, Rohingya outnumber local people by about two to one.

Residents of Ukhia and Teknaf were already among Bangladesh’s poorest and by some measures as deprived as the refugees, according to ACAPS, a Geneva-based think-tank that analyses humanitarian responses.

Seven in 10 families — both Bangladeshi and Rohingya — struggled to get enough to eat, ACAPS found.

Little of the land around Cox’s Bazar is suitable for farming, so Bangladeshis have to buy about 80 percent of their food in local markets, said ACAPS.

The price of that food is rising, said Hamidul Hoque Chowdhury, a college principal who heads the Ukhia branch of the Awami League, the party of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina.

Six months ago, 1 kg of potatoes cost 20 taka ($0.24); it has since tripled in price to 60 or 70 taka. The price of fish has doubled, he said.

“The local people are now silent. They’re not shouting now. But they’re not happy,” said Chowdhury. “Tensions will definitely rise.”

Chowdhury, who helped organize a small anti-Rohingya protest in Ukhia in January, said Rohingya were competing with Bangladeshis for unskilled labor jobs, the main source of income for about half the local population.

Faruk Ahmed, 73, a local farmer, said he hired Rohingya laborers because they were cheap, plentiful and hard-working.

“Bangladeshis want 500 taka ($6) a day, but Rohingya will take 300 taka,” he said. “I’ll hire the cheapest worker.”

Rohingya Island

Partly to ease the congestion at the camps, Bangladesh is accelerating a controversial plan to temporarily relocate 100,000 Rohingya on a remote island in the Bay of Bengal.

H.T. Imam, an advisor of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, said the refugees must be kept apart from Bangladeshis. “In the past the Rohingya spread out and caused serious law and order problems,” he said.

Humanitarian groups said they were also looking for ways to support the Bangladeshi community.

Of the $950 million budget currently being requested from donors for March to December, a quarter had been earmarked for projects that will directly benefit Bangladeshis, said UN host community liaison Maurice Dewulf.

There are “no major signals yet” of problems between Bangladeshis and locals in Cox’s Bazar, Dewulf said, but such problems become more likely the longer a refugee crisis lasts.

The Rohingya families camped out on Jorina Katun’s land are also doing what they can to keep the peace, paying Katun between 300 and 600 taka ($3.50 to $7) a month in rent, says refugee Bodi Alam.

The Bangladesh Army, which oversees security in the area, said it forbids local people to charge rent. “But we still pay,” said Alam.

Without such payments, there would be quarrels with the Bangladeshis. “They will say ‘go from here, this is our area, these are our houses, this is our land,'” he said.

Your Thoughts …
Tags: Rohingya
Reuters

Reuters

...

Similar Picks:

Myanmar Junta Rejects Bangladeshi Call for Rohingya State
Burma

Myanmar Junta Rejects Bangladeshi Call for Rohingya State

by Maung Kavi
May 2, 2025
10.4k

A political party in Bangladesh says a Rohingya-majority area of Rakhine State should become an independent state for returning refugees.

Read moreDetails
Once Upon a Time in… Myanmar
Books

Once Upon a Time in… Myanmar

by David Scott Mathieson
October 14, 2024
10k

American photojournalist Greg Constantine’s ‘Ek Khaale’ project assembles old photos and documents to reclaim the Rohingya community’s identity.

Read moreDetails
The Uncertain Future of Myanmar’s Rakhine State
Guest Column

The Uncertain Future of Myanmar’s Rakhine State

by David Scott Mathieson
March 19, 2025
9.6k

The Arakan Army must now consolidate its unprecedented territorial gains in Rakhine State and contend with humanitarian, intercommunal and international...

Read moreDetails
Around 100 Myanmar Junta Personnel Flee to Bangladesh: Dhaka
Myanmar’s Crisis & the World

Around 100 Myanmar Junta Personnel Flee to Bangladesh: Dhaka

by Muktadir Rashid  
July 12, 2024
6.6k

Bangladeshi government sources say around 100 more junta border guards and soldiers have crossed the border from northern Rakhine State...

Read moreDetails
Junta Watch: Mystery Deepens Over Fate of Regime No. 2; Finding Uses for Rohingya; and More
Junta Watch

Junta Watch: Mystery Deepens Over Fate of Regime No. 2; Finding Uses for Rohingya; and More

by The Irrawaddy
April 20, 2024
5.7k

Also this week, the junta’s New Year amnesty maintained tradition by releasing criminals but keeping 20,000 political prisoners locked up.

Read moreDetails
Myanmar Regime Lighting Fuse for Ethnic Inferno as it Loses Rakhine: AA
Burma

Myanmar Regime Lighting Fuse for Ethnic Inferno as it Loses Rakhine: AA

by Hein Htoo Zan
March 27, 2024
5.3k

Arakan Army urges Rohingya people not to fall for junta’s attempts to ignite religious violence amid devastating defeats.

Read moreDetails
Load More
Next Post
An Indian government agency for indigenous people has asked the forest ministry to ensure that its tiger conservation policy does not threaten the rights of indigenous people. / Reuters

Indian Officials Order Stop to Eviction of Tribal People from Tiger Reserves

A villager points to a bullet hole in the skull of an elephant that had been poached by hunters in Bago Region in 2013. / The Irrawaddy

EU Calls on Myanmar to Take Action to Save Shrinking Elephant Population

No Result
View All Result

Recommended

Myanmar Regime Leader Rejects World Bank Economic Forecast as Inaccurate

Myanmar Regime Leader Rejects World Bank Economic Forecast as Inaccurate

5 days ago
1.5k
From Foreign Policy Drift to Diplomatic Freefall in Myanmar

From Foreign Policy Drift to Diplomatic Freefall in Myanmar

1 week ago
2.1k

Most Read

  • Myanmar Junta Starves Last Rakhine Strongholds as AA Closes In

    Myanmar Junta Starves Last Rakhine Strongholds as AA Closes In

    shares
    Share 0 Tweet 0
  • Timor-Leste Hits Back at Myanmar Junta’s Objection to ASEAN Membership

    shares
    Share 0 Tweet 0
  • TNLA Defies Myanmar Junta Push to Cede Shan Towns in China Talks  

    shares
    Share 0 Tweet 0
  • Myanmar People Skeptical of Junta’s Promises of Election, Peace

    shares
    Share 0 Tweet 0
  • Myanmar’s Civilian Govt Rebuffs Junta’s Appeal for ‘Cooperation’

    shares
    Share 0 Tweet 0

Newsletter

Get The Irrawaddy’s latest news, analyses and opinion pieces on Myanmar in your inbox.

Subscribe here for daily updates.

Contents

  • News
  • Politics
  • War Against the Junta
  • Myanmar’s Crisis & the World
  • Conflicts In Numbers
  • Junta Crony
  • Ethnic Issues
  • Asia
  • World
  • Business
  • Economy
  • Election 2020
  • Elections in History
  • Cartoons
  • Features
  • Opinion
  • Editorial
  • Commentary
  • Guest Column
  • Analysis
  • Letters
  • In Person
  • Interview
  • Profile
  • Dateline
  • Specials
  • Myanmar Diary
  • Women & Gender
  • Places in History
  • On This Day
  • From the Archive
  • Myanmar & COVID-19
  • Intelligence
  • Myanmar-China Watch
  • Lifestyle
  • Travel
  • Food
  • Fashion & Design
  • Videos
  • Photos
  • Photo Essay
  • Donation

About The Irrawaddy

Founded in 1993 by a group of Myanmar journalists living in exile in Thailand, The Irrawaddy is a leading source of reliable news, information, and analysis on Burma/Myanmar and the Southeast Asian region. From its inception, The Irrawaddy has been an independent news media group, unaffiliated with any political party, organization or government. We believe that media must be free and independent and we strive to preserve press freedom.

  • Copyright
  • Code of Ethics
  • Privacy Policy
  • Team
  • About Us
  • Careers
  • Contact
  • Burmese

© 2023 Irrawaddy Publishing Group. All Rights Reserved

Welcome Back!

Login to your account below

Forgotten Password?

Retrieve your password

Please enter your username or email address to reset your password.

Log In
No Result
View All Result
  • Home
  • News
    • Burma
    • Politics
    • World
    • Asia
    • Myanmar’s Crisis & the World
    • Ethnic Issues
    • War Against the Junta
    • Junta Cronies
    • Conflicts In Numbers
    • Junta Watch
    • Fact Check
    • Investigation
    • Myanmar-China Watch
    • Obituaries
  • Politics
  • Opinion
    • Commentary
    • Guest Column
    • Analysis
    • Editorial
    • Stories That Shaped Us
    • Letters
  • Ethnic Issues
  • War Against the Junta
  • In Person
    • Interview
    • Profile
  • Business
    • Economy
    • Business Roundup
  • Books
  • Donation

© 2023 Irrawaddy Publishing Group. All Rights Reserved

This website uses cookies. By continuing to use this website you are giving consent to cookies being used. Visit our Privacy and Cookie Policy.