Bangladesh begins census to list undocumented Rohingyas
Dhaka: The Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics (BBS) has begun surveying undocumented Rohingya Muslim population in six districts, reports UNB.
The survey began simultaneously on Thursday in Chittagong, Cox’s Bazar, Rangamati, Khagrachhari, Bandarban and Patuakhali districts, and it will end on 17 February.
Its project director Alamgir Hossain said they were conducting the survey with the assistance from the International Organisation of Migration (IoM) as authorities have no estimates of how many Rohingya Muslims currently live in Bangladesh apart from 33,000 living in two official camps -Naya Para and Kutupalong in Cox’s Bazar.
According to various official documents, 300,000 to 500,000 Rohingya Muslims currently living in Bangladesh have remained unaccounted for.
The move for the survey would give the authorities a chance to understand the gravity of the problem created because of Buddhist-majority Myanmar’s persecution of Rohingyas who fled to Bangladesh to mostly save their lives in the face of torture, harassment and lack of work.
Officials said they would start a detailed census in late March depending on the current survey to examine the socio-economic condition of the undocumented Rohingya Muslims living in the country.
A database would be created with the collected information about them. Photos and addresses where these Muslims used to live in Myanmar would be incorporated in the database.
Officials say the six districts have been divided into 243 zones, and as many as 6,974 enumerators will collect information going door-to- door under 811 supervisors under a Tk 21.55-crore project.