Border Guard Bangladesh (BGB) on Monday (February 16) repatriated 73 fishermen, including six Rohingyas, who had been detained by Myanmar’s armed group the Arakan Army while fishing in the Bay of Bengal.

The fishermen were handed over at the zero line along the Naf River and later brought to Teknaf Jetty Ghat in Cox’s Bazar in the first phase of their return, officials said.

Lieutenant Colonel Md Hanifur Rahman, commanding officer of BGB Battalion-2 in Teknaf, said the fishermen were picked up at different times in 2025 after their trawlers inadvertently crossed into Myanmar waters during routine fishing.

“The Arakan Army detained them in separate incidents and kept them at camps inside Myanmar,” he said, adding that their release was secured through communication between local security agencies and the Arakan Army on humanitarian grounds.

According to New Age, BGB officials confirmed that among the returnees, 66 are Bangladeshi nationals while seven are Rohingyas residing in the Forcibly Displaced Myanmar Nationals (FDMN) camps in Cox’s Bazar. Authorities have begun the process of verifying their identities and handing them over to their respective families.

Officials said the identities of the fishermen were cross-checked with local representatives and law enforcement agencies before their formal release procedures began.

The 271-kilometre Bangladesh-Myanmar border has remained tense amid ongoing clashes in Myanmar’s Rakhine State between the Myanmar military and the Arakan Army. BGB sources said the Arakan Army currently controls most of the Myanmar side of the border opposite Bangladesh, with little visible presence of Myanmar’s border guard forces.

In addition to detentions of fishermen, sporadic incidents of landmine explosions and cross-border security risks have heightened concerns among border communities in Teknaf and surrounding areas.

The development comes against the backdrop of the Rohingya crisis that began in August 2017, when hundreds of thousands fled a military crackdown in Rakhine State and sought refuge in Bangladesh. The country now hosts nearly 1.3 million displaced Rohingyas in camps in Cox’s Bazar, with thousands of new births recorded each year, making it one of the world’s largest refugee settlements.

BOB Post