At least 70,000 Rohingya Muslims have fled into Bangladesh since October 2016, amid a military crackdown on the minority community in Myanmar triggered by an attack on Burmese border guards in early October 2016 that killed nine.
A BenarNews correspondent who interviewed new arrivals at refugee camps in southeastern Bangladesh heard testimony of rapes, arson, and killings on a scale since corroborated by researchers for Human Rights Watch and the United Nations.
Rohingya Muslims have been fleeing to Bangladesh since the 1970s to escape repression in Myanmar. Prior to the recent influx, about 35,000 refugees lived in two UN-registered refugee camps and 300,000 more in vast unregistered settlements nearby.
Bangladesh has refused to grant the Rohingya refugee status because it considers them citizens of Myanmar, while Myanmar considers the Rohingyas illegal immigrants from Bangladesh and has denied them citizenship and access to basic services for decades.
As they seek better lives in other countries, Rohingya Muslims are vulnerable to human trafficking. Security experts warn that Muslim extremists are exploiting their plight to recruit violent jihadists. And the issue is a source of recurring friction in the region, as neighbors shoulder the burdens of irregular migration and decry the treatment of the Rohingya.