Photo: The
Daily Star
September 22, 2013
With the arrest of 107 Rohingya Muslims over the past three months for
illegally trying to enter West Bengal, the Border Security Force (BSF) has
taken up the matter with the Border Guards Bangladesh (BGB).
Senior BSF officers, who were part of the delegation at the Director
General-level talks held in Dhaka earlier this month, told The Hindu here
on Sunday that they had urged the BGB “not to push them” into India.
Owing to ethnic violence in Myanmar, Rohingya Muslims had been moving
into Bangladesh over the last few years. From there they enter India in large
numbers taking the help of touts, according to Additional Director General
(East) BSF, B.D. Sharma.
BSF authorities pointed out that such infiltration had been occurring
near the border outposts in West Bengal’s Dakshin Dinajpur, Nadia, Malda and
North 24 Parganas districts.
During talks with the BGB, the BSF authorities pointed out that
there were some refugee camps of Rohingya Muslims along the border and from
there, people were trying to enter India.
The BSF, however, was told that the United Nations High Commission on
Refugees had set up the camps and there was nothing the BGB could do about
them. “But the impression we were given by those arrested was that the camps
are run by Bangladesh,” an officer said.
The BGB authorities said that the influx of refugees was a problem
for them too and “they are as much a victim as we are.” The BGB officials
reportedly said that the influx was because of a humanitarian crisis and they
had no role in pushing them into India.
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