Fears of boat exodus as smugglers prey on Rohingya desperation

Cox’s Bazar (Bangladesh): As desperation swells in the squalid camps that are home to a million Rohingya refugees, long-dormant – and often deadly – trafficking networks are being revived, Bangladeshi officials warn.
Smugglers operating rickety fishing boats prey on the hopes of people who fled violence in Myanmar, charging them small fortunes for a dangerous journey to Southeast Asia, offering an empty promise of a fresh start.
Many in the heaving Rohingya ghettos of Cox’s Bazar feel they have no other option but to try to escape, community leaders and aid workers say.
Sensing a surge, coastguard patrols have been stepped up since the first boat was detected in November in the Bay of Bengal, said Ikbal Hossain, deputy police chief in Cox’s Bazar.
Another boatload of refugees who fled a camp in Myanmar were found off the country’s southern coast in November after spending 15 days at sea in a failed attempt to reach Malaysia.
“As the sea turns calm, the smuggling rackets have resumed their activities. But we have a zero tolerance attitude toward human trafficking,” Hossain told AFP.
But he said traffickers were difficult to detect in the teeming hills where more than 720,000 Rohingya sought refuge after a brutal crackdown by the Myanmar military in August 2017.
Local authorities fear another exodus is looming, as traffickers return to old tricks to lure vulnerable refugees onto ships.
The UN refugee agency UNHCR is running awareness campaigns in the camps about the dangers of trusting people smugglers and taking flimsy boats into the open ocean.
“Unless they believe there are other tangible solutions to their plight, Rohingya will continue to risk their lives on boats,” said UNHCR spokeswoman Caroline Gluck.
But amid grinding hardship, with little prospect of a brighter future, camp leaders say the promise of a better life elsewhere would be difficult to counter. (AFP)