UP member helps encroach Ukhia forest land for Rohingya settlement

A settlement for Rohingya refugees has sprung up on encoached forest land at Cox’s Bazar’s Ukhia with the help of a Union Parishad member.

The group headed by Nurul Absar, Ward-1 member at Palangkhali Union, has been renting out huts to refugees from Myanmar, neglecting warnings from the forest officials.   

But Absar, also joint general secretary of the Juba League at Ukhia, said he took the initiative out of 'humanitarian concern’.

Tens of thousands of Rohingya Muslims have crossed the border into Bangladesh to escape persecution and violence in Myanmar.

Bangladesh has made repeated pleas to Myanmar for repatriation of Rohingyas living in two camps in Cox’s Bazar.

But a violent campaign was recently launched in Myanmar’s Rakhine province following the death of border policemen in insurgent attacks in October.

Bangladesh witnessed a new wave of refugees and United Nations estimates at least 27,000 Rohingyas have crossed into Bangladesh after the attacks.

The new refugees have been setting up homes in hill areas besides the camps at Kutupalang.

More than 400 Rohingya families are already living in the new settlement that was set up in the hills of Nainnar Ghona at Palangkhali’s Balukhali. They have encroached on protected forest land, officials have said.

Ukhia Range official Monirul Islam said they raided the area. “But this organised gang is still patronising the Rohingyas who are setting up the slum. A new settlement was set up at Nainnar Ghona despite the raid by forest officials.”

The forest has been cleared to set up at least 400 huts with poles, bamboo and plastic sheets, a visit to the area revealed.    

Around 7,000 from the nearby Kutupalang Refugee Camp moved to the new settlement which has been growing since.

Some families were seen taking temporary refuge under trees. The settlement dwellers said each family paid Tk 2,500 to Tk 3,000 and will have to pay Tk 300 as monthly rent.

Anwara Begum, 20, escaped violence in Myanmar’s Maungdaw area in Rakhine state.

She escaped to Bangladesh with her 7-month child and her uncle after soldiers took away her husband.

She said she first took refuge in a hut at the Kutupalang camp but has moved to the new settlement.

She said forest officials took down several huts during a raid last Wednesday. She then paid a local Tk 2,500 for the hut she is living in now.

Laila Begum, 32, who reached Kutupalang last week after escaping Maungdaw with her four children, said she had set up a hut at the unregistered Rohingya camp there with the little money she had.    

But the hut was taken down by forest officials during Wednesday’s raid. “I got a place here (Balukhali) with the UP member’s help. But now I don’t have the money to build a new hut.”

Union Parishad member Absar divided the new settlement into seven blocks and nominated a chief or ‘Manjhi’ for each, said Karam Ali, who heads Block-1.

He said more than 5,000 refugees arrived at the Kutupalang camp within the span of one week. Many of them, he said, set up huts in the nearby hilly areas. 

But they were left without shelter after the raid by forest officials. Then they moved to the new settlement. On Friday, Absar divided the blocks and nominated leaders among the refugees for supervising the settlement.

When asked about payment, he said, ‘some money’ was being taken for making new huts. 

But Absar claimed he has not been taking money from the refugees.

“What is the problem if some Rohingyas take refuge in the areas around Kutupalang camp? I’m only making arrangements for their shelter in my area.”