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Rohingya escape after Myanmar threat

Wednesday, 28 February 2018 3:41 PM [ Last Update: Wednesday, 28 February 2018 3:43 PM ]

Rohingya refugees collect relief material next to a settlement near the no-man's-land area between Myanmar and Bangladesh in Tombru in Bangladesh's Bandarban on February 27, 2018. (Photo by AFP)

Hundreds of Rohingya living in no man's land have left their makeshift camp and crossed into Bangladesh after soldiers from Myanmar used loudhailers to threaten them, community leaders said Wednesday.

Around 6,000 Rohingya have been living on a thin strip of land between the two countries since fleeing Myanmar in the wake of a brutal military crackdown on the Muslim minority in late August.

They were among the first to flee Myanmar when the violence erupted last year and set up shelters in no man's land in the weeks before Bangladesh agreed to let the Rohingya into the country.

In recent weeks they have come under pressure from Myanmar soldiers, who have stepped up patrols along the barbed-wire border fence just yards from the camp and broadcast messages using loudhailers ordering the Rohingya to leave.

Community leader Dil Mohammad said the messages had spread panic through the camp.

"We can't now sleep peacefully. Most of the Rohingya in the camps now want to flee and take shelter in Bangladesh," Mohammad said.

"Around 150 families have already left the camp for Bangladesh as they were afraid they might be forcefully sent back to Rakhine," he told AFP, referring to the area of Myanmar where the Rohingya used to live.

One Border Guard Bangladesh official said the Myanmar soldiers were playing the announcement at least 10 to 15 times a day.

The photo, taken on February 27, 2018, shows Myanmar's army personnel keeping watch as workers build a fence along the Myanmar-Bangladesh border, as seen from Tombru in the Bangladeshi district of Bandarban. (Photo by AFP)

In it they urge the Rohingya to leave, saying the land they are on is under Myanmar's jurisdiction and threatening them with prosecution if they remain.

Last week Bangladesh and Myanmar officials visited the camp and urged the refugees to return to Rakhine.

But community leaders have said they will not go back unless their demands for citizenship and security guarantees are met.

Myanmar views the Rohingya as illegal immigrants from Bangladesh and has long denied them citizenship and basic rights.

Nearly 700,000 have fled since the military backed by Buddhist mobs launched a brutal crackdown in the wake of attacks by Rohingya militants on police posts.

(Source: AFP)

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