Collage of Rohingya testimonies

Refugees carrying bamboo poles to start a new home. Md. Arshad, 30, says he has changed his home six times, five times in Myanmar. "Every time I set up a house, it was looted or set on fire. Once I came to Bangladesh but was sent back to Myanmar. This is the sixth time I am setting up a house. But this too is a temporary one," he says.

The refugees carry all their belongings in two or three large-sized bags. They pay between $30 and $80 in Myanmar currency for each person, other than children below 10, to the boatman to cross the river. Often the money is arranged by their relatives from Bangladesh or by international support groups. This family paid 50,000 Myanmar kyat (about $37) to cross the river. The young girl, behind her father, Nur Kaida, paid 25,000 kyat (about $19).

Each family in the camp produced a whole lot of identity cards given to them by the Myanmar government. The Rohingyas refused to accept the one which identified them as Bengalis and not as Rohingya. This family, which came during an earlier influx, shows various identity cards, with no defined nationality. Its members indicated that their parents were Myanmarese nationals in the 1950s. But the Emergency Immigration Act and the National Registration Certificate diluted their citizenship.

Ismat Ara (right), from Sein Dee Pran at Buthidaung in north-west Myanmar, said her thatched house was destroyed by a missile fired by a rocket launcher. Her 13-year-old daughter died when the hut caught fire. Rehana Begum (left) "lost touch" with five of her daughters. Another daughter was born and died in the Naik-Kon Dia beach in Myanmar, while she was waiting to reach Bangladesh.

The other points of entry to Bangladesh from Myanmar are the openings on the land border. Many thousands are waiting in Tamru land border in Bandarban district, adjacent to Cox’s Bazar. They are in the no man's land between Bangladesh and Myanmar waiting for the administration's nod to enter the country. An official of Border Guards Bangladesh posted in the area said that food access was not restricted. "They are also allowed in small numbers every day to enter Bangladesh," he said. Myanmar has put up a barbed wire fence.