Authorities plan to collect biometric data from the new refugee arrivals.
Abdur Rahman and Mostafa Yousuf/Cox’s Bazar and Dhaka
Nearly 65,000 Rohingya have crossed into southeastern Bangladesh since late last year amid unrest and violence in Rakhine, their home state in neighboring Myanmar, according to newly updated information from Bangladeshi officials.
The new arrivals, documented from November 2023 to December 2024, add to a huge population of Rohingya refugees, who have been sheltering at sprawling camps and settlements in Cox’s Bazar district for at least seven years.
Bangladeshi authorities say they are set to collect biometric data from the newcomers, who number about 64,700 people, or some 17,480 families.
“The government has principally agreed to issue biometric identification for the newly arrived Rohingyas. It found the number to be around 60,000 after [a] head count,” Mohammed Mizanur Rahman, commissioner of the Refugee Relief and Repatriation Commission (RRRC) Office, told BenarNews on Thursday.
The Rohingya entered Bangladesh despite declarations from the previous government that it wouldn’t allow any more Rohingya into the country and it had sealed the borders to them.
The previous government, led by Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, fell in August 2024 under pressure from a student-led uprising. A transitional government has been in charge of Bangladesh since then.
However,details have not yet been released about the biometric identification system, which is set to start next month.
Human rights advocates had earlier raised concerns that the biometric details of Rohingya refugees – which may include fingerprints, facial and iris scans, as well as personal data – would be shared with Myanmar’s ruling junta without their consent or knowledge.
The biometric identification process would begin as soon as the government approves it, according to the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), which is involved in the activity.
“The Biometric Identification Exercise is not a registration, but will allow UNHCR to de-duplicate individuals who were counted more than once during the headcount, as well as exclude already-registered refugees who arrived in 2017 and who may have been counted,” the U.N. agency said in a statement sent to BenarNews.
About 740,000 Rohingya fled from Rakhine following a bloody crackdown against members of their stateless Muslim minority group in August 2017. They joined other Rohingya who had settled in camps in and around Cox’s Bazar, bringing the total number of refugees in southeastern Bangladesh at the time to just over 1 million.
In June 2021, Human Rights Watch accused UNHCR of “improperly” collecting and sharing personal information from the Rohingya refugees with the Bangladeshi government, which shared them with the Myanmar junta.
“The agency did not conduct a full data impact assessment, as its policies require, and in some cases failed to obtain refugees’ informed consent to share their data with Myanmar, the country they had fled,” HRW alleged.
In response, UNHCR said it had followed proper procedures in its biometric data collection system.
Rakhine’s deteriorating situation
Bangladeshi authorities fear there may be a spike of Rohingya refugees fleeing from Rakhine as the situation in the Myanmar state continues to worsen.
“The recent influx was triggered [by the takeover] of Maungdaw township in Rakhine by the Arakan Army [AA],” the RRRC commissioner said.
There have also been incidents of Rohingya villages being razed, forcing residents to take shelter across the border, he also said.
This month, ethnic minority AA insurgents – which are fighting for self-determination in Rakhine state – said they had captured a major military base in the town of Ann.
The AA’s capture of the base was the latest major setback for the Burmese junta, which seized power in a February 2021 coup.
Refugee Zahangir Alam told BenarNews that AA members were taking many young Rohingya captive.
“The Arakan Army’s torture [of] Rohingya is more agonizing than that of Myanmar Army. I used to study at an educational institute there in Maungdaw and had to flee to save myself from their torture. My younger brother is still held hostage in the camp run by the Arakan Army,” Zahangir said.
Refugees who earlier fled violence and persecution in Myanmar said they had been kidnapped and forced to fight in the country’s ongoing civil war for both the junta and the AA.
With the help of a smuggler, also known as a “broker,” Zahangir was able to flee to Bangladesh. He is currently staying at a refugee camp in Cox’s Bazar.
Bangladeshi authorities said smugglers had been helping Rohingya – in exchange for hefty fees – to cross the border areas between southeastern Bangladesh and northwestern Myanmar.
Some refugees claimed they had to pay smugglers bribes ranging from Tk 20,000 (U.S. $166) to Tk 25,000 ($200) to cross the border.
If the situation further deteriorates, there may be more Rohingya fleeing into Bangladesh, foreign ministry official Ferdousi Shariar and foreign affairs adviser Md. Touhid Hossain said.
Amid the unrest in Myanmar, authorities said they were closely watching the border areas at the town of Teknaf and Saint Martin’s Island.
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