Fresh census of Rohingyas begins
Govt to gather info about those who entered Bangladesh recently
The government yesterday started counting the number of Rohingyas who took shelter in Cox's Bazar district on fleeing a four-month army crackdown beginning in October last year in neighbouring Myanmar's Rakhine state.
The Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics (BBS) deployed 200 trained teams of two, one supervisor and one enumerator, since 8:00am to initially cover Ukhia and Teknaf upazilas before moving on to Cox's Bazar sadar, Ramu and Chakaria.
Expected to complete by March 10, the census is part of a government plan to relocate the refugees to Noakhali's Thengar Char, an island in the Bay of Bengal.
Collection of preliminary data, including identifying places where the Myanmar nationals took refuge, started on February 25.
Praising the initiative, convener of Rohingya Repatriation Action Committee, Principal Hamidul Haque Chowdhury, urged making public another census BBS carried out last year.
The crackdown began after nine Myanmarese policemen were killed in attacks on border posts. Government and international organisations assume around 70,000 Rohingyas entered Bangladesh.
A United Nations human rights observer who recently visited Bangladesh stated of hearing from the refugees how government forces gang-raped women, slit people's throats and threw children into burning houses.
Over 400,000 Rohingyas have already been living for years in squalid camps and slums in the country's biggest tourist resort district.