Rohingyas stuck between India, Bangladesh

Dozens of Rohingya Muslims are stuck between India and Bangladesh with nowhere to go despite days of talks.

Bangladesh Rohingya

More than 30 Rohingya refugee children are stuck on the border between Bangladesh and India. (AAP)

Bangladesh has denied entry to 31 Rohingya Muslims trying to enter from India and they are stuck in no-man's land on the border, as India cracks down on members of the community.

The stranded Rohingya, including women and children, had been living in the Indian state of Jammu and Kashmir, according to Bangladeshi officials.

The 31 have been stuck on Bangladesh's border with India since Friday.

"We stopped them as they were crossing the border," Bangladeshi official Golam Kabir said.

"They've been on the zero line since the 18th of this month," he said, referring to the border.

Two rounds of talks on what to do with the 31 had "ended without any conclusive decision", Kabir said.

Many hundreds of thousands of members of mostly Buddhist Myanmar's Rohingya community have left their homes, most fleeing military crackdowns and discrimination.

Many have sought shelter in Bangladesh - where nearly one million Rohingyas live - but others have ended up in India, southeast Asia and beyond.

An Indian border force officer in Tripura state said on Sunday that they were providing food and clothing to the Rohingya, 16 of whom were children.

India estimates that 40,000 Rohingya are living in scattered settlements in various parts of the country.

But its Hindu nationalist government regards them as illegal aliens and a security threat, and has ordered that they be identified and repatriated.

The United Nations says conditions are not conducive for Rohingya to return to Myanmar.

In August, the United Nations accused the Myanmar military of mass killings and rapes of Rohingya with "genocidal intent" in a 2017 military operation that drove more than 700,000 of them into Bangladesh.

Myanmar has denied the accusations, saying its military launched a counter-insurgency operation after attacks on security posts by Muslim terrorists.


Share
2 min read

Published

Source: AAP

Tags

Share this with family and friends


Get SBS News daily and direct to your Inbox

Sign up now for the latest news from Australia and around the world direct to your inbox.

By subscribing, you agree to SBS’s terms of service and privacy policy including receiving email updates from SBS.

Download our apps
SBS News
SBS Audio
SBS On Demand

Listen to our podcasts
An overview of the day's top stories from SBS News
Interviews and feature reports from SBS News
Your daily ten minute finance and business news wrap with SBS Finance Editor Ricardo Gonçalves.
A daily five minute news wrap for English learners and people with disability
Get the latest with our News podcasts on your favourite podcast apps.

Watch on SBS
SBS World News

SBS World News

Take a global view with Australia's most comprehensive world news service
Watch the latest news videos from Australia and across the world