Monitoring Desk
DHAKA: Bangladeshi police have dismissed allegations of abusing Rohingya refugees in Cox’s Bazar following Human Rights Watch called on officials to probe into reports of wrongful arrest and harassment by security forces at camps.
In a report published earlier this week, Human Rights Watch said that safety standards in Cox’s Bazar refugee settlements had declined under the oversight of the Police Battalion, which took over security of the camps in 2020.
The global rights body said it had interviewed a large number of Rohingya in 2022 and analyzed police reports documenting cases of “serious abuse by APBn officials,” including detention, violence, on “apparently fabricated grounds,” and demanding bribe in exchange for release.
Officials and HRW
APBn officials rejected the reports of HRW and said that the global rights group did not take their point of view in the report.
Concerns over security in Rohingya camps were raised in August following two refugee community leaders were shot dead, reportedly by an insurgent group. Some reports suggest that criminal organizations using these camps as drug traffickers.
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Reports said that APBn launched “Operation Root Out” to counter criminal activity in October. Police said that as many as 1,000 Rohingya were captured last year in cases linked to drugs, murder, and illegal arms.
Bangladesh presently hosts more than 1.2 million Rohingya Muslims, most of whom fled Myanmar in 2017. Most of them live in dirty conditions in camps in Cox’s Bazar, in eastern Bangladesh, which has become the world’s largest refugee settlement.
