With the country slowly getting back on track despite Covid-19 pandemic it is also now the time to get back on track in the work to properly monitor the Rohingya camps. It was circulating around the media that the government decided to put up barbed wire fence around Rohingya camps along with CCTV camera installations and also raising watch towers to better monitor the Rohingya camps. This all came up nearing in September last year.
This is the September after a year that this issue has once again been brought up in the media with high focus on security threats and crimes being committed by Rohingyas. It is quite obvious that the present year has witnessed a lot of tragedies in terms of coronavirus impact, but it is also the time to get back to work to properly secure the intrastate boundary to isolate the Rohingyas from the Bangladeshi citizens so that they cannot do anymore harm. It might sound harsh. But, if we look at the shootings and killings between the law enforcement and Rohingyas related to drug trafficking it would be factual to believe that the Rohingyas have truly indeed become a problem that needs to be properly monitored. Already on many occasions this has been proven with multiple drug related shootings taking place in Teknaf.
It is the time to get back to work to properly
secure the intrastate boundary to
prevent further crime from
taking place.
On the other hand, we laud the stringent crackdowns on these miscreants but there is still lackof proper vigilance in the camps and hence the decision, as per a report published in this daily, to beef up surveillance in and around the camps of Rohingyas to check criminal activities is quite a well-timed one that should not have been so late. Nevertheless, it did get put off because of the coronavirus pandemic and, we hope that these three steps will be completed as soon as possible.
The report also showed that there are also credible intelligence in government’s hand that around 500 foreign nationals are taking refuge at camps illegally. If such a thing has taken place, it is a great threat to the sovereignty of our country that needs to be dealt with strongly as soon as possible. Any sign of reluctance or negligence in these matters cannot be tolerated and must be handled properly.
Above all, we should not forget that these are all only temporary arrangements that we are putting up and the original goal was to pursue repatriation of the displaced Rohingyas. To this end more diplomatic endeavourmust be completed successfully in cooperation with international support so that this can be achieved as soon as possible.
