Cox's Bazar (Bangladesh) (AFP)

When hundreds of thousands of Rohingya Muslims, victims of abuses in Burma, fled to Bangladesh in summer 2017, local people often welcomed them. But two years after the influx of refugees, hostility is growing.

"Initially, as members of the Muslim community, we helped them," says Haque. The worker, who lives near the border town of Ukhiya in Cox's Bazar district (southeastern Bangladesh), has helped some 60 families settle on a piece of land owned by him, believing that they would stay two or three months maximum.

"Today, we have the impression that the Rohingyas still settled in Burma will soon arrive in Bangladesh," he worries.

Ukhiya had about 300,000 inhabitants, but the massive influx of refugees from August 2017 more than tripled the population.

Most of the refugees are housed in the sprawling camp at Kutupalong. Others, who have more resources, have tried to find a place in Bangladeshi society.

Pollution and crime rising, job losses: local people accuse them of all the evils.

"They rob us of odd jobs by bribing the police," says Mohammad Sojol, who has lost his job as a rickshaw driver because, according to him, the owners of vehicles now prefer to hire refugees for a lower salary even if they are not officially allowed to work.

As a result of protests, some Rohingyas who had settled outside the official camps are now forced to return and their children are expelled from local schools.

- Gangs of drugs -

The Rohingyas, an ethnic Muslim minority, fled the abuses - described as "genocide" by UN investigators - by the Burmese army and Buddhist militias.

Only a handful of them have returned, fearing for their safety in a country where they are denied citizenship and are treated as illegal immigrants.

The fact that these refugees are "inactive in the camps makes them unstable," said Ikbal Hossain, acting chief of police at Cox's Bazar District.

"They get all kinds of help, but they have a lot of free time," he says, adding that many have fallen into the hands of drug traffickers.

Tens of millions of methamphetamine (yaba) tablets are coming in from Burma, one of the world's leading producers of this synthetic drug, in Bangladesh via the camps.

And the traffickers use Rohingyas as mules, responsible for transporting narcotics to nearby cities.

At least 13 Rohingyas, suspected of carrying thousands of yaba, were shot dead in clashes with police.

And the presence of drug gangs in the camps has heightened insecurity and violence, prompting Bangladesh to increase police presence.

According to the police, the crime rate here is higher than the national statistics of the country, which records some 3,000 murders per year for 168 million inhabitants.

318 criminal complaints have been filed against Rohingyas since August 2017, including 31 for murders, according to Ikbal Hossain. But according to experts, the number of crimes in the camps would be much higher than the figures of the police.

"We do not feel safe at night, but I can not leave my house, otherwise the rest of my land will also be occupied by refugees," Rabeya Begum, a housewife living in the hamlet of Madhurchhara, said. near Kutupalong camp.

Mohib Ullah, a leader of the Rohingya community, denies having bad relations with the local population. "We help each other because we are neighbors (...) We would do the same for them".

Some 3,500 Rohingyas have been allowed to return from Bangladesh to Burma as of Thursday, if they wish.

In November 2018, a previous attempt to place some 2,200 of them on a repatriation list had failed, the refugees, without any guarantee of security in Burma, refusing to leave the camps.

© 2019 AFP