THE government has planned to build barbed wire fencing around the Rohingya refugee camps in Cox’s Bazar due to increasing incidents of human trafficking. Following a proposal placed by Cox’s Bazar police, the Parliamentary Standing Committee on the Defence Ministry in a meeting on September 4 agreed on the need of the fencing. Officials stationed in the camps said the problem of human trafficking will continue until the refugees are restrained from leaving the camps. It is necessary to limit their movement, they said. If the Rohingya refugees can move freely, they can get in touch with Rohingyas who have been living in the country for years before the influx in 2017. They can also meet with miscreants among the locals.
Additional Commissioner of RRRC said it needs strong, barbed-wire fences around the camps, with watch towers at regular intervals. A road should be constructed next to the fence for patrol vehicles, he said. It’s learnt that a proposal on the fencing was previously approved at a meeting of the National Task Force on Human Trafficking in late August. International Organisation for Migration sources said 300 Rohingya refugees were rescued from human trafficking till May this year. The number rose to 429 by the end of July. What’s disturbing is that the number of Rohingya refugees rescued from human trafficking this year is 14 times higher than in the first 14 months of the influx that began in 2017.
Around 400 Rohingya women have already been trafficked for the sex trade while promises of better future luring Rohingyas into becoming trafficking victims. SP of Cox’s Bazar said they have ensured 24-hour police presence at the camps. Police have also made a number of recommendations to improve security at the camps, such as communication systems, installing CCTV cameras on roads and buildings, as well as barbed-wire fencing. Once these are in place, the situation will be much better.
We do believe that fencing around the refugee camps can’t be a permanent solution to check human trafficking unless their destined are decided. Government must speed up the repatriation process to send them back to their homeland to get a relief from the constant pain.
