Kazi Zahidul Hasan :
The Cox’s Bazar district administration has sought deployment of additional security personnel around the refugee camps in the district following rapid involvement of Rohingya youths in illegal activities especially in drug trade.
The district administration made the call at the 18th meeting of the National Taskforce on Implementation of National Strategy on Myanmar Returnees and Undocumented Myanmar Nationals held in Dhaka recently.
“Basic and primary needs of the Rohingyas have already been fulfilled. They are now involving in drug trafficking to make extra money falling prey of local drug trading syndicate,” an official who attended the meting told The New Nation yesterday on condition of anonymity.
He said Rohingya youths are rapidly involving in yaba supply chain and this can quickly spread all over the camps unless heightened security measures are put in place in the camp areas.
“We proposed the authorities to deploy a separate APBN unit and Quick Response Team for the camps to curb the illegal business and maintain law and order in the district,” added the official.
The official further said that many Rohingya people had depended on arms and drug trafficking prior to their arrival in Bangladesh. They again involved in the crime falling prey to local dealers and smugglers network. Many of the refugees have already been arrested on charge of carrying yaba drug.
“The use of yaba pill in the district increased alarmingly following the influx. Rogingya families are pushing their youths to involve in crime for additional income. As a result, yaba trade is flourishing in the district. Even they are being used as drug carriers to other districts causing much concern to local administration,” he said.
In this context, we sought deployment of law enforcement personnel in the camps to deter drug trafficking by Rohingya people.
People consume an average of 20 lakh yaba pills a day, officials at the Department of Narcotics Control (DNC) estimated in Dhaka.
Each pill retails for around Tk 300. The same pill can be bought for around Tk 60 taka in Cox’s Bazar. Rohingyas can earn Tk 10,000 for transporting 5,000 pills to Dhaka and other urban centers, the officials said.
“Bangladesh has become a big market for drug traffickers who source the drug (yaba) from factories in lawless northeastern Myanmar, according to Jeremy Douglas, regional representative of the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime.
“Whatever is coming is growing very, very fast in Bangladesh,” he said. “But it’s much bigger in the use in Myanmar. It has been very carefully cultivated and developed by organized crime groups. They have been trafficking inside the country and they have been pushing the product fast across the border in Bangladesh.”
