Bangladesh stops NGOs from helping Rohingyas Muslims

Frances Medicines Sans Frontiers, British-based Muslim Aid and Action Against Hunger were told about the ban by Joynul Bari, commissioner of the southeastern border district of Coxs Bazar, which he said was meant to discourage illegal migration from strife-torn Myanmar.Bari said the directive came from Bangladeshs NGO (non-governmental organisation) Affairs Bureau which regulates aid groups.The charities were not immediately available for comment, but have already faced pressure not to aid a new influx of Rohingyas.Longstanding tensions between ethnic Rakhine Buddhists and Muslim Rohingyas boiled over in Myanmars Rakhine state in early June, resulting in a series of arson and machete attacks in which authorities say 77 people were killed and more than 100 wounded.Myanmar security forces killed, raped or carried out mass arrests of Rohingyas after the violence started, New York-basedHuman Rights Watch said, raising questions about the governments ability to manage an ethnically diverse nation emerging from decades strict military rule.There are at least 800,000 Rohingyas in Myanmar but they are not recognised as one of its ethnic groups.Majority-Muslim Bangladesh has sought to turn back Rohingyas from entering the country, fearing an exodus from Myanmar, and police on Thursday arrested nine Rohingyas from a hotel in the Bangladesh capital Dhaka.Nearly 30,000 Rohingyas who fled to Bangladesh in the early 1990s to escape alleged persecution by Myanmars military junta now live in two refugee camps in Coxs Bazar run by the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees.Bangladesh officials said there is a floating population of hundreds of thousands Rohingyas living illegally in Coxs Bazar.A Coxs Bazar resident told Reuters on Thursday thatRohingyas are still trickling in to Bangladesh by sea and forests along the border, ignoring a warning by Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina that new refugees will be turned away.We can take no more refugees she told parliament las month.