Hossen Sohel: A year after the flood of refugees, the camps have become functional towns, with shops, roadside restaurants and pharmacies. There are playgrounds for children and makeshift schools run by development agencies. More medical clinics are being built and many shanties have solar panels. Most people have at least some protection against monsoon landslides.
But people are still terrified and angry, facing a profoundly uncertain future. Many doubt they will ever go home, reports AFP.
Mohammad Arif ran a small grocery store in Myanmar and was comparatively well-off. Now, the only way he can see his old house is through video calls he makes to relatives and friends still living on the other side.
On Thursday, as he spoke to a cousin in Myanmar on a video call, he was told there was still a strong military presence in their village.
“I think there are anywhere between 100 to 700 (soldiers) here right now,” his cousin told him.
“Ever since I came here, I have been suffering and have lots of tensions,” he said. “But people who are still there are suffering even more than we are, because they are constantly thinking if they are going to survive or be killed.”
Myanmar has promised to take back all the Rohingya refugees, and has built camps for them on its side of the border, while Bangladesh says it will temporarily shelter and feed them. The two countries agreed to begin repatriating them in January, but that was called off amid concerns among aid works and the Rohingya that their safety was not guaranteed.
Diplomats and aid workers say that while the Rohingya militants have launched some small-scale attacks, the counterstrikes by Myanmar have been overwhelmingly more destructive and deadly.
Myanmar, the international community says, now must create a situation where Rohingyas feel safe to return home.