Bangladesh to install fences around Rohingya refugee camps

DHAKA, Bangladesh – A Cabinet minister says authorities in Bangladesh will build barbed-wire fences around sprawling camps housing Rohingya refugees to stop their expansion.

Home Minister Asaduzzaman Khan said Thursday the fences were ordered by Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, who had earlier told authorities to open the border to allow hundreds of thousands of Muslim Rohingya to escape from a harsh military crackdown in neighbouring Myanmar two years ago.

Khan did not say exactly when construction of the fences will begin at more than 30 camps near the border.

Last year, the U.N.-established Independent International Fact-Finding Mission on Myanmar recommended the prosecution of top Myanmar military commanders on charges of genocide, war crimes and crimes against humanity. Myanmar has rejected the allegations.