By: Hafizur Rahman
Maungdaw, Arakan State – July 23, 2025
Seventeen Rohingya families from Shwe Zar village who were detained by the Arakan Army (AA) have been released after over four months in captivity—only after paying significant ransom money. Now, fearing renewed threats, those families are attempting to flee to Bangladesh once again.
The families, totaling 78 individuals (36 men and 42 women and children), were arrested by AA forces on April 26, 2025. According to survivors, their release came on the afternoon of July 22, but only after being forced to pay 2 million Kyats per person. One woman from the group said, “For my family of five, we had to pay 10 million Kyats. We were only allowed to leave once the full amount was paid.”
During their detention, conditions were dire. A released man told Rohingya Khobor, “We were given only one meal a day, usually just rice with salt. There were no vegetables, no medical care. Two children died from diarrhea. We could do nothing but watch.”
Now freed, the families say their ordeal is far from over. AA officials reportedly threatened them again, warning that if they were found in Maungdaw in the future, they would be arrested and sentenced to six to eight years in prison unless they paid even higher fees—5 million Kyats for adults and 2.3 million for children.
Fearing renewed detention or worse, the families are now attempting to escape to Bangladesh. With the help of a trafficking network—who charged an additional 700,000 Kyats per person—they have boarded boats and are currently stranded near Lal Deyar Island, waiting to cross under cover of darkness.
“They took our land, our money, and now they want to erase us,” said a young man from the group. “Even after we returned to our village peacefully, they told us we don’t belong. They gave us no choice but to leave again.”
Local sources report that this kind of extortion and targeting is being applied almost exclusively to Rohingya. Members of Rakhine, Hindu, and other ethnic communities who returned to Maungdaw after recent fighting have not been subjected to arrest or extortion. Meanwhile, the Rohingya—many of whom fled to Bangladesh during the 2017 genocide and returned home in the hope of reclaiming their lives—are being detained, threatened, and forcibly displaced again.
Currently, an estimated 310 Rohingya families have returned to Maungdaw from refugee camps in Bangladesh. However, AA leaders have publicly declared that they will treat all returnees as “illegal border crossers” and have threatened legal action.
Rights observers warn that these recent events mirror the tactics previously used by the Myanmar military to push out Rohingya communities—through detention, intimidation, and economic strangulation.
“This isn’t just displacement—it’s financial destruction and psychological warfare,” said a Rohingya elder familiar with the situation. “The Arakan Army is using the same playbook we have seen before. The uniforms may have changed, but the oppression remains the same.”
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