Agartala: A drastic fall in international aid for the internationally displaced Rohingya migrants sheltered in Bangladesh is compelling them to look for alternative sources of livelihood.
Intelligence sources of the Border Security Forces (BSF) in Tripura attributed the spurt in Rohingya influx in the North Eastern states to the global ignorance toward the displaced ethnic group.
A highly placed source of the BSF told EastMojo that the bordering population of Tripura must identify this growing crisis and take proactive role in helping the security agencies to put a complete stop in cross border human trafficking.
“The only reason behind the exponential rise in detention of Rohingya migrants in Tripura and neighboring North Eastern state is that they don’t have other option. They enter India and get scattered in different parts of the country in search of petty jobs. The detentions that are being made in various parts of the state can never draw the real picture of how many Rohingyas are already living in the country. The border touts play a vital role in providing them shelter and later getting them enrolled in the government database such as Adhaar, Voter ID, Pan Card etc.”, the official said requesting anonymity.
He said apart from the males with family, a substantial number of unmarried females are also crossing the borders in recent times. “The touts of bordering areas bring them and hand them over to the next point of the chain. The females are brought in India for two major reasons—Marriage and flesh trade. Recently, three girls were detained from Kamalasagar area of the Sepahijala district. During the police interrogation, they revealed that their contact person in the border promised them to get their marriages solemnized with grooms based out of different locations of the country. With high hopes of a good loving, they entered India illegally”, the senior official told EastMojo.
After a thorough analysis of the intelligence wings of Tripura Police and BSF, they have jumped to the conclusion that the Rohingya migrants are trying hard to get themselves resettled in India because the international aid provided for them is getting lower day by day. And after, the Russian-Ukraine war, the Rohingya crisis has failed to draw the attention of the international community.
“So far we know, several years back the foreign aid used to be somewhere around 60 US dollars per person that has reduced to six US dollars per person right now. Naturally, it is quite hard for the displaced Rohingyas to sustain with that”, the official informed EastMojo.
According to a report published in The Business Standard (Bangladesh), Bangladesh used to receive $689 million for the Rohingyas sheltered there in 2018 which has slumped to $383 million.
The experts like Rashed Al Mahmud Titumir Chairman of Department of Development Studies in Dhaka University who had been quoted in the story laid emphasis on strategic shift in tackling the situation prevailing there. He also predicted that by the year 2027, the Bangaldesh government would need 2,227 million US dollars to provide for the Rohingyas sheltered here.
A report of international publication ALJAZEERA on the world food programme’s (WFP) decision to slash the food support for Rohingyas published in March 2023 indicated that the food aid for the internationally displaced people might continue to fall.
In March, the WFP cut short the food support from $12 to $10 per head citing donation shortfall.
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Considering all these issues, the problems related to influx of Rohingyas in India and the North Eastern might go up further in the days to come.
According to a data of the Border Security Forces, last year only 59 Rohingyas were detained by the troopers in the border areas last year which is expected to get doubled at the end of 2023.
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