Myanmar is building military bases over flattened Rohingya villages, an international rights group said.

Security forces have bulldozed houses and started constructing at least three new security facilities in Myanmar's western Rakhine state, said Amnesty International's Remaking Rakhine State report, which was published on Monday.

The report, which said construction of the three army outposts began in January, is based on satellite imagery and witness statements from Rohingya refugees.

"What we are seeing in Rakhine state is a land grab by the military on a dramatic scale. New bases are being erected to house the very same security forces that have committed crimes against humanity against Rohingya," Tirana Hassan, Amnesty's crisis response director, said.

"The new construction is entrenching the already dehumanizing discrimination they have faced in Myanmar."

Nearly 700,000 Rohingya have fled Myanmar since last August as a result of a government crackdown launched in the wake of deadly attacks on military posts by members of the Arakan Rohingya Solidarity Army (ARSA).

Eyewitnesses told Amnesty that Rohingya in Buthidaung township had been forcibly evicted from their homes to make way for the development. Al Jazeera was not able to independently verify those claims.

Myint Khine, a government administrator in Rakhine, told Al Jazeera the developments were not a "military land grab".

"We have been using bulldozers for building roads and construction ... not for military [purposes]," Khine said.

Hundreds of Rohingya villages have been torched and at least 55 settlements completely bulldozed, since the ongoing crisis began, according to Human Rights Watch.

The majority of those displaced have sought refuge in neighboring Bangladesh.

According to the UN, the exodus marks the fastest growing refugee crisis in the world.

Ro Nay San Lwin, a Rohingya activist, told Al Jazeera that Myanmar will "never allow" the Muslim minority to return to Rakhine state.

"It is clear that as a part of genocide they have destructed the Rohingya homes and confiscated everything," Lwin said. "They will never allow the Rohingya to return to their original villages."

The Rohingya, one of the most persecuted communities in the world, are not recognized as citizens of Myanmar and have for decades faced widespread discrimination from authorities.

Prior to the current exodus, tens of thousands of Rohingya have already been living as refugees in several neighboring countries.

Myanmar and Bangladesh announced a repatriation deal in January, but rights groups and Rohingya have raised concerns about the agreement, saying it does not guarantee full citizenship or safety for those who return.

'Atmosphere of panic'

Laura Haigh, Amnesty's Myanmar researcher, told Al Jazeera the demolition of their villages has created an "atmosphere of panic" among the Rohingya.

"What we need to see is the Myanmar government saying this is Rohingya land and saving it for them," Haigh said.

"[Instead] there's a growing sense this [militarization] is going to be a threat to safety and security, and there's worry about violence happening again."

Although the Amnesty report refers to the construction of three security bases, in the Maungdaw and Buthidaung townships, there is growing evidence more facilities are being developed, Haigh added.

"Every time we go back to look at specific locations, we are seeing changes on a day-to-day basis. It's not just about the scale of change, it's also about the pace," she said.

Border tensions

The ongoing turmoil in Rakhine state has also created flashpoints between Myanmar and neighboring Bangladesh.

Earlier this month, Myanmar deployed some 200 troops to its border with Bangladesh, close to a nearby strip of land between the two that is home to about 6,000 Rohingya refugees.

The area falls within Myanmar's territory but is widely referred to as "no man's land" because it lies beyond the country's border fence.

Myanmar said the move was part of an operation to target the Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army (ARSA) fighters operating in the region.

Security forces - who reportedly issued warnings using loudspeakers for Rohingya to leave the "no man's land" - were later pulled back after Bangladesh summoned Myanmar's ambassador over the incident.

Kyaw Win, founder of the Burma Human Rights Network, told Al Jazeera that Myanmar authorities are still attempting to force Rohingya remaining in Rakhine into Bangladesh.

"Burma is starving remaining Rohingya in Rakhine state and this is forcing them to flee," Win said.

On Monday, the UN's Special Rapporteur Yanghee Lee also said Myanmar's government appeared to be pursuing a policy of starvation.

Lee, who was reporting to the United Nations Human Rights Council in Geneva, said the results of a UN fact-finding mission in Myanmar "bear the hallmarks of genocide" by the country's authorities.

An agreement signed between Bangladesh and Myanmar concerning the voluntary repatriation of more than 600,000 Rohingya, exonerates Myanmar's security forces of any responsibility for their displacement, and places the persecuted minority in harm's way, according to a Bangladeshi opposition politician.

Bangladesh's main opposition party criticized the government for "selling itself" to the Myanmar government in order to get an agreement to remove the Rohingya.

"Where are you sending the Rohingyas? They fled from the grasp of a tiger in fear of death, but you're again pushing them towards the same tiger," Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir, BNP secretary-general, said on Sunday.

"One will get an impression going through the deal that the government has accepted whatever Myanmar said."

The agreement, signed on November 23 by the country's two foreign ministers, blames a Rohingya rebel group rather than Myanmar's army, which carried out a campaign of arson and murder against the persecuted minority.

The text of the agreement contradicts the nearly unanimous conclusion of the international community, including that of Bangladesh, which blamed the mass exodus on atrocities by the Myanmar military.

At an OIC Contact Group meeting in New York in October, Sheikh Hasina, the Bangladesh prime minister, described the events in Myanmar as "ethnic cleansing" and stated that "the ongoing military operations by the Myanmar authorities have created havoc in the Rakhine State."

Human rights organizations told Al Jazeera there were several concerns with the agreement which also suggested that Myanmar had taken the "necessary measures to halt the outflow [of the Rohingya]".

Olof Blomqvist, a researcher with Amnesty International, told Al Jazeera it was "far too premature" to start talking about repatriating the community.

"With whole villages burned to the ground, where will the Rohingya live?" he said.

"Rohingya are still fleeing across the border into Bangladesh on a daily basis, and back in Myanmar, they are living under a system of state-sponsored discrimination and segregation that amounts to apartheid.

"While Rohingya refugees have the right to return to Myanmar, under international law, no one should be forced back to a situation where they could face persecution or serious rights violations".

'Textbook case of ethnic cleansing'

The seven-page agreement stated that the Rohingya - which are only referred to as "Muslims" - had "taken shelter in Bangladesh following the terrorist attacks on 9 October 2016 and 25 August 2017".

These dates refer to the attacks by the Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army on law police and security posts in the Rakhine state of Myanmar.

In October 2016, the ARSA attacked three police posts in Maungdaw and Rathedaung townships killing nine police officers and in August 2017, it attacked about 30 security posts in the state.

However, following both incidents, the international community blamed the exodus - about 87,000 after October 2016 and over 600,000 since August 2017 - on human rights violations carried out by Myanmar security forces.

In September, the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights called the actions of the Myanmar army a "textbook case of ethnic cleansing" a view subsequently echoed by the US.

A UN report also concluded that the "Myanmar security forces purposely destroyed the property of the Rohingyas [and] scorched their dwellings and entire villages in northern Rakhine State, not only to drive the population out in droves but also to prevent the fleeing Rohingya victims from returning to their homes."

There are also significant concerns about the practicalities of the agreement which says that the Myanmar government will "encourage those who have left Myanmar to return voluntarily and safely to their households and original places of residence or to a safe and secure place nearest to it of their choice" and will not have to be "settled in temporary places for a long period of time".

"Although the Myanmar government has pledged to construct new houses, no timeline has been set. There is a real risk that returnees, like tens of thousands of other Rohingya in Rakhine state, will end up in displacement camps in deplorable conditions, not least because the government continues to restrict aid groups' access," Blomqvist said.

The agreement also requires that the Rohingya prove that they are resident of Myanmar and sets out a list of documents that can be used as evidence of residency.

But Amnesty International considers it "completely unrealistic to ask many of the fleeing Rohingya to prove residency" who will have "lost crucial documents during their flight in panic into Bangladesh".

"This insistence on 'verification' could likely make it impossible for many thousands to return," Blomqvist added.