Arakan News Agency
Border Guard Bangladesh (BGB) members have pushed back around 120 Rohingyas who were trying to enter Bangladesh via the Naf River in Teknaf and escape the violence in Myanmar.
Eight boats attempting to cross the Naf River separating Rakhine from southern Bangladesh were pushed back on Monday after six were refused entry on Sunday, Colonel Abuzar Al Zahid, the head of the border guards in the Bangladeshi frontier town of Teknaf, told AFP
“There were 12 to 13 Rohingya in each of the boats,” Zahid said.
Over the past three days, the BGB has pushed back 18 boats filled with Rohingya refugees.
Thousands of desperate Rohingya from Myanmar’s western Arakan state have flooded over the border into Bangladesh in the past week, bringing with them horrifying claims of gang rape, torture and murder at the hands of Myanmar’s security forces.
Dhaka says thousands more are massed on the border, but has refused urgent international appeals to let them in, instead calling on Myanmar to do more to stop people fleeing.
In the past two weeks, Bangladeshi border guards have prevented more than 1,000 Rohingya, including many women and children, from entering the country by boat, officials told AFP.
