Maungdaw residents flee in search of employment opportunities

Many locals have stopped working for fear of clashes with ‘Bengalis’, leaving many families in poverty. 

The Rakhine State government in August released figures that its Bengali population (referred to as “Rohingya” internationally) comprises more than one third of the total, and is the majority population in one of the state’s four districts. Official figures put the state’s population at 2.95 million, of whom 1.05 are Bengalis and 1.9 are officially recognised ethnic groups, primarily ethnic Rakhine. 

Myanmar Bengalis are considered to be illegal immigrants from Bangladesh by the Myanmar government. They have borne the brunt of recent anti-Muslim violence perpetrated by nationalist Buddhists in Myanmar. 

Nonetheless, the number of empty houses in Buddhist-dominated Maungdaw area is increasing. 

"Three rainy seasons have passed since the outbreak of conflicts. People are afraid to go to their farms to grow rice and fish in the creeks. It is difficult for them to survive. Youths, even girls, are flocking to Thailand and Malaysia to work as migrant workers,” said Tun Mya Aung from Mingalarnyunt village in Maungdaw. 

The majority of those who have fled Maungdaw are youths. Some are even university graduates. 

“The nearby villages have no graduates or students who passed their matriculation exams because they have all fled. Some move to Yangon while others migrate to Thailand or Malaysia. They don't stay here for long. When they come back to their villages, they take one or two youths back with them to foreign countries. Even girls go to Thailand. Some girls come back,” said a local from Kanthaya village in Maungdaw Township. 

"My work is crab catching. I do it in the creek near my village. I don’t dare catch crabs in the villages where Bengalis are living. Three or four people were attacked by a group of Bengalis when they approached a Bengali village. Recently, Bengalis attacked women catching crabs in a lake near a Bengali village," said Ko Maung Kyan from Pyatha village. 

"I have to catch crabs every day for my family and children. My family will be in trouble if I leave the village. I cannot afford to pay money to go abroad," he said. 

"Villagers cannot repair their damaged homes due to lack of income," said U Than Tun, a member of the Emergency Coordination Centre in Sittwe, Rakhine State. He recently conducted an official survey of Myanmar's national races, from which Bengalis were excluded. 

The government and UN agencies provide aid to Muslim villagers as well as national races villages damaged by the conflicts and the national races that fled from Bangladesh. But local people from other villages are facing more difficulties due to the lack of assistance and security, said the chairman of the Maungdaw District National Safeguard Foundation. 

The UN agencies estimated that dozens of the Muslims have been killed and over 100,000 displaced or confined to camps since the Buddhist-Muslim tensions intensified in 2012.