Two Rohingya Children Die in Detention as Families Forced into Labor in Maungdaw

By: Camp Correspondent

Maungdaw, Arakan State | July 15, 2025
Two Rohingya children, both under the age of five, have died inside a detention center in Maungdaw after falling ill with severe diarrhea—reportedly due to the lack of clean water, food, and access to medical care. The children were among 72 Rohingya detainees held at the Maungdaw Police Station since April 26, after returning to their native village from Bangladesh.

Sources close to the families said the children died within three days of being detained. “There was no medicine, no clean water. The children suffered, and we watched helplessly,” said a family member of one of the victims. Detainees are being denied contact with relatives and are not allowed to receive food, water, or medicine from outside.

Of the 72 detained, 42 are women, and many are elderly or in poor health. Families have reportedly been given only one plain meal a day. “We are being treated worse than animals,” said a woman detained at the site, speaking through a relative who managed to deliver the message.

Since early July, at least 17 families have been subjected to forced labor. Detainees are being made to sweep roads, clear drainage ditches, and cut overgrown bushes in schoolyards—under constant surveillance from armed guards.

Authorities claim the families are being prosecuted under immigration laws for “illegally crossing the border” and face up to six months in prison. However, community members point out that only the Rohingya are being targeted, while other returning groups such as Rakhine Buddhists and Hindus are allowed to resettle without similar punishment.

“My wife and two children are still detained. My little girl died in that cell,” said one Rohingya man. “They told us it was safe to come back. Now we are being punished for returning to our own land.”

This wave of repression follows the return of approximately 310 Rohingya families to Maungdaw in recent months. Some returnees have been detained inside their own villages, while others are being held in facilities like the Maungdaw Police Station under increasingly dire conditions.

Observers and human rights defenders say the Arakan Army’s treatment of the Rohingya is drawing comparisons to the Myanmar military’s earlier abuses—if not exceeding them. Arbitrary detention, forced labor, denial of aid, and targeting of Muslim returnees have become part of a broader pattern of repression in areas now under AA control.

Since launching a military campaign in November 2023, the Arakan Army has seized control of 14 out of 17 towns in Arakan State. While it claims to represent ethnic Rakhine interests, the group has increasingly been accused of crimes against the Rohingya community, including displacement, violence, and systematic exclusion.

The recent deaths of two children, compounded by the forced labor of detained families, has once again spotlighted the ongoing humanitarian crisis in western Myanmar. For many Rohingya, this suffering is not new—it is a continuation of persecution that began long before 2017, when nearly a million were forced to flee to Bangladesh.

As international attention fades, community members warn that silence and inaction are enabling a fresh cycle of abuse. “We came back hoping for peace,” said a relative of one of the detainees. “But there is no peace for Rohingya. Only new prisons.”