1,500 Myanmar refugees turned away by Bangladesh

Dhaka, Bangladesh: Bangladesh on Tuesday turned away three boats carrying 1,000 Rohingya Muslims fleeing violence in neighboring Myanmar, bringing to 1,500 the number of refugees blocked in recent days, officials said.

“They have been chased away,” police official Jahangir Alam said by phone from Saint Martins Island in the Bay of Bengal after the three boats attempted to approach the shore of the island. “We are keeping our eyes open so that nobody can enter Bangladesh illegally.” [caption id=“attachment_341174” align=“alignleft” width=“380” caption=“Bangladesh turned away 1,500 Myanmar refugees. Representative image.”] [/caption] Violence between Buddhists and minority Muslims in western Myanmar have left at least 12 people dead and hundreds of homes burned since Friday. Bangladesh earlier said it sent back 11 boats with about 500 Rohingya Muslims aboard in the past three days. Foreign Minister Dipu Moni said at a news conference in the capital, Dhaka, that it was not in Bangladesh’s interest to accept any refugees because the impoverished country’s resources already are strained. The United Nations’ refugee agency estimates 800,000 Rohingya live in Myanmar’s Rakhine state. Myanmar considers them illegal immigrants, effectively rendering them stateless. Rights groups say they face extortion, land confiscation, forced evictions, and other human rights abuses, and thousands attempt to flee Myanmar annually. Bangladesh says Rohingya have been living in Myanmar for centuries and that Myanmar should recognize them as citizens. In the 1990s, about 250,000 Rohingya Muslims fled to Bangladesh in the face of alleged persecution by the military junta. Later, Myanmar took back most of them, leaving some 28,000 in two camps run by the government and the United Nations. Bangladesh has been unsuccessfully negotiating with Myanmar for years to send them back and, in the meantime, tens of thousands of others have entered Bangladesh illegally in recent years. AP