he fact that Myanmar’s internal conflicts are now spilling onto the Bangladesh side of our shared border is absolutely unacceptable.
Is it not enough that due to Myanmar’s ceaseless persecution of their own minority groups, Bangladesh is currently saddled with over a million Rohingya refugees who are putting additional strain on our already struggling economy? But now our nation has to also contend with the fallout of their own security failings? With at least two people getting killed and a child being injured due to a mortar shell landing on Bandarban from the Myanmar side, it is high time that the Myanmar government was held accountable for the country’s indiscriminate violence affecting the wider region.
The Myanmar government has time and again shown a complete lack of cooperation when it comes to the repatriation of the Rohingya refugees currently in Bangladesh, and the callousness with which they are engaging in conflict along our borderlines fails to indicate any regard for the safety of their own people much less that of their neighbours’.
The most obvious point to make here would be that Bangladesh needs to heighten its security measures along the Myanmar border, while we chose to offer shelter to the fleeing Myanmar border police it is nonetheless a security threat that we must not take lightly -- any further unauthorized entries from Myanmar citizens cannot be accepted and the officers must go back to Myanmar without delay.
It is incredibly unfair that, once again, Bangladesh has to suffer because of Myanmar’s governance and security failures. Furthermore, given the incredibly tense situation along our borders, it makes prospects of the repatriation process continuing anytime soon that much slimmer.