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AFP
DHAKA
THOUSANDS of Rohingya have crossed into Bangladesh since Myanmar announced a military build-up in Rakhine state earlier this month, community leaders said Wednesday.
Rakhine in northern Myanmar has been gripped by violence since October, when militants attacked police posts.
That sparked a bloody military crackdown that the UN believes may amount to ethnic cleansing of the Rohingya, a mainly Muslim minority living in Buddhist Myanmar.
On August 12 authorities in Myanmar said hundreds of troops had moved into Rakhine as it ramps up counterinsurgency efforts there.
Rohingya leaders in Bangladesh told AFP that at least 3,500 had arrived since then, piling pressure onto already overcrowded refugee camps in the Cox's Bazaar area near the Naf river that divides the two countries.
That is despite stepped-up patrols by Bangladeshi border and coast guards, who said this week they had pushed back a boat carrying 31 Rohingya, including children.
"In the Balukhali camp alone, some 3,000 Rohingya arrived from their villages in Rakhine,"said Abdul Khaleq, referring to the camp nearest the river, where most of the migrants stay when they first arrive.
