The government incurs a loss of around Tk2.4m every year for maintenance of Rohingyas in the district jail.
On the other hand, the Myanmarese government shows apathy to bring the prisoners back to their country because of legal complexities.
Sources in the Cox’s Bazar district prison said the jail housed at least 1,500 inmates, four times its capacity.
Of the total prisoners, 110 are Myanmarese, 35 of whose conviction period have expired four-five years back.
The Bangladesh government is spending Tk60 per head daily on their maintenance.
Nowadays, more and more Rohingyas are involving themselves in criminal activities in the district.
Rohingyas enter Cox’s Bazar through different points of the frontier district.
Currently, at least 400,000 of them reside in the district illegally.
The Myanmarese are also registering for National Identity Cards through paying bribes to a vested group and offering cheap labour, thus taking control of the labour market in the district.
Most of the Rohingyas engage in pulling rickshaws and other types of cheap labour.
Law enforcers face trouble to arrest and file cases against them as the new arrestees mean adding to the existing inmates in the already overflowing prison.
Cox’s Bazar Jail Super Md Said Hossain said, “Of the 35 prisoners, we have completed legal procedures for sending only five back to their country.”
Tofayel Ahmed, additional superintendent of police in the district, said the presence of Rohingyas was a big problem in and outside the prison.
