Bangladesh police accused of abusing Rohingya refugees

DW

Arafatul Islam
16 August 2023

Rights groups say the Armed Police Battalion is committing arbitrary arrests, torture and harassment of Rohingya refugees living in precarious conditions in Cox's Bazar's overcrowded settlements. 

The Armed Police Battalion is a specialized combat unit of the Bangladesh police force

 

Rohingya people living in refugee camps in the Bangladeshi city of Cox's Bazar are being arbitrarily detained, beaten and tortured by members of the Armed Police Battalion (APBn) — a specialized combat unit of the Bangladesh police force — revealed an investigation by the human rights NGO Fortify Rights

Scores of Rohingya refugees drown in a boat capsizing in the Bay of Bengal

VTICAN NEWS
By Edoardo Giribaldi
14-08-2023

Rohingya people in Myanmar (Reuters)

17 people died and some 30 are still missing after their boat capsized in the Bay of Bengal. The authorities report that the exact time and the causes of the incident are still unknown.

Rohingya refugees in Cox’s Bazar pin new hope on OIC support

ARAB NEWS
SHEHAB SUMON
August 13, 2023

A joint delegation from the Organization of Islamic Cooperation and the UN High Commissioner for Refugees conducts a humanitarian visit to Cox’s Bazar in Bangladesh from Aug. 6 to 11. (UNHCR)

• Rohingya refugees believe organization can ‘help us more’ as largest platform of Muslim ummah
• Joint OIC, UN visit seen as ‘positive contribution’ to keeping Rohingya issue at top of global agenda

DHAKA: Rohingya refugees in Cox’s Bazar have sought support from the Organization of Islamic Cooperation as they continue to face uncertainties about their future compounded by a massive cut in UN food rations this year.

Rohingya Refugees Wary as China Develops Plan for Repatriation

VOA
Ingyin Naing
August 03, 2023 

Two Rohingya children at the sprawling Balukhali refugee camp in Cox's Bazar, Bangladesh, June 9, 2023. (Noor Hossain/VOA)

Rohingya refugees living in squalid and sprawling camps in Bangladesh are casting a skeptical eye on a Chinese initiative to facilitate their return to Myanmar, where they were subjected to a campaign of murder and burning by the same military forces that now rule the country.

"We want to return home. However, under this pilot scheme, the Myanmar military will confine us in camps. They won't allow us to go back to our homes and villages," Aung Myaing, a Rohingya relief volunteer at the Kutupalong refugee camp in Cox's Bazar, Bangladesh, told VOA by phone.

India police arrest 74 Rohingya refugees in latest crackdown

Aljazeera
25 Jul 2023

The arrested include 14 women and five children living in six districts of Uttar Pradesh state ‘after crossing the border illegally’, police said. Rohingya baby dies in detention in Indian-administered Kashmir

Indian police say they have arrested 74 Rohingya refugees for living “illegally” in the northern state of Uttar Pradesh in a move activists condemned as an arbitrary crackdown on people fleeing violence.

The members of the mainly Muslim Rohingya community were detained in six towns and cities in the state and 10 of the refugees were juveniles, police said on Monday.

Indian police arrest 74 Rohingya refugees in north

REUTERS
July 24, 20231

LUCKNOW, India, July 24 (Reuters) - Indian police said they arrested 74 Rohingya refugees on Monday for living "illegally" in the northern state of Uttar Pradesh - a move activists condemned as an arbitrary crackdown on people fleeing violence.

The members of the Muslim Rohingya community were detained in six town and cities in the state and 10 of the refugees were juveniles, police said, without giving ages.

The Rohingya Human Rights Initiative campaign group said the detained people had been living in the area for about 10 years after fleeing persecution in Myanmar.

Rohingya refugees find hope in language preservation

FAIR PLANET
topic: Refugees and Aslyum
#India, # Rohingya, # Refugees,
tags: #education, # Language
Located : India , Myanmar
by : Asma Hafz

July 19, 2023

"I can send messages in my native language. I know we have far more problems to overcome, but this has given us more representation and legitimisation."

A group of 15 children bundled together in a small shanty made of bamboo and plastic and read out from their notebooks in a Rohingya refugee camp in the Faridabad district of Haryana, 28 kilometres away from the Indian capital New Delhi.

Report: Rohingya Refugees Exposed to Violence in Bangladesh Camps

OCCRP
Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project
Published: 17 July 2023
Written by Erika Di Benedetto

The Rohingya refugee community in Bangladesh is facing increasing violence and insecurity from criminal gangs and Islamist armed groups operating within the refugee camps, as Bangladeshi authorities fall short in their duty to provide adequate support and protection, claims a report published by Human Rights Watch.

Rohingya Refugees Stage Protest in J&K Detention Centre, Demand Immediate Release

THE WIRE
Umer Maqbool
18/Jul/2023

Representative image. Photo: Flickr/CC BY-NC-ND 2.0

Srinagar: Clashes broke out inside Jammu & Kashmir’s lone detention centre on Tuesday (July 18) morning after incarcerated Rohingya refugees staged protests to seek their release or repatriation to Myanmar.

UK provides £11.6m for Rohingya refugees and communities affected by disasters across Bangladesh

GOV.UK
From: British High Commission Dhaka
Published3 July 2023

 UK provides £11.6m for Rohingya refugees and communities affected by disasters across Bangladesh

This new package of UK support will provide food, water, and sanitation to Rohingya refugees, and child protection services to refugees and neighbouring host communities. It will also provide support to communities across Bangladesh affected by major natural disasters, such as floods and cyclones, if they occur.

Why India is attacking the rights of Rohingya refugees

MIDDLE EAST EYE
Misbah Haqani
20 June 2023

The state's 'national security' discourse is being used as a weapon in service of Islamophobia

Members of the United Hindu Front hold a protest to demand the deportation of Bangladeshi and Rohingya Muslims in New Delhi in August 2018 (AFP)

Over the past three decades, the borders of the concept and practice of security have expanded dramatically - and vaguely, inasmuch as anything and everything now embodies the potential to be constructed as a security threat.

A Boat Carrying 180 Rohingya Refugees Vanished. A Frantic Phone Call Helped Untangle the Mystery

khaosodenglish
By Associated Press
KRISTEN GELINEAU reported from TEKNAF, Bangladesh
June 6, 2023

Jamal Hussein’s boat in the storm. (AP Illustration/Peter Hamlin)

The wind had whipped the waves to nearly three times the woman’s height when her panicked voice crackled over the phone.

“Our boat has sunk!” Setera Begum shouted, as a storm threatened to spill her and around 180 others into the inky black sea south of Bangladesh. “Only half of it is still afloat!”

Threats and cash: Rohingya refugees under pressure for Myanmar return

AA
DHAKA, Bangladesh
Md Kamruzzaman, Sm Najmus Sakib
07.06.2023

 

 

Refugees say authorities using monetary incentives and intimidatory tactics to make them sign up for repatriation, Bangladesh denies charges

A drone view of the Rohingya camps ( Md Kamruzzaman - Anadolu Agency )

Bangladesh and Myanmar have been pushing ahead with a contentious pilot project to repatriate Rohingya refugees, a plan brokered and backed by China.

More than anything else, the proposal – which aims to kick off with the return of some 1,100 refugees – has raised concerns.

Developing Transitional Solutions for Rohingya Refugees in Bangladesh

THE I DIPLOMAT
By Iffat Anjum
June 01, 2023

With long-term solutions likely to remain elusive, it’s time to make serious efforts toward improving Rohingya lives in the short term. 

For around 1 million Rohingya refugees from Myanmar living in Bangladesh, sustainable solutions such as safe and voluntary return to their homeland, large-scale resettlement in third countries, or local integration in Bangladesh will remain elusive for the foreseeable future. It is essential that national policymakers, international organizations, nongovernmental organizations, and donors promptly work to strengthen the resilience of displaced Rohingya and host communities through investments in education and livelihoods – and in doing so, lay the foundation for long-term solutions to displacement.

UN in Bangladesh decries devastating new round of rations cuts for Rohingya refugees

UNITED NATIONS
Migrants and Refugees
1 June 2023

IOM/Mashrif Abdullah Al,Rohingya refugees in Bangladesh are expected to receive less food aid following funding shortages.

The UN in Bangladesh on Thursday condemned a second cut in food rations for Rohingya refugees who are sheltering in the country, after a funding shortfall of $56 million compelled the World Food Programme (WFP) to enforce the cuts. 

 

The cuts will reduce the value of rations provided to Rohingya refugees to $8 per month, or 27 cents per day.

Bangladesh: UN experts decry devastating second round of rations cuts for Rohingya refugees

UNITED NATIONS

01 June 2023

GENEVA (1 June 2023) – UN experts condemned a second cut in food rations for Rohingya refugees in Bangladesh effective today, after a funding shortfall of US$56 million compelled the World Food Programme to enforce the cuts.

The cuts will reduce the value of rations provided to Rohingya refugees to US$8 per month, or 27 cents per day.

The experts warned that the cuts will have devastating consequences for Rohingya refugees in Bangladesh and make life in the camps even more untenable. The experts implored UN Member States to urgently fund the humanitarian response in Bangladesh, ensuring the restoration of full rations for refugees.

UN agencies face funding challenges in feeding Rohingya refugees in Bangladesh

daily obsever
Tuesday, 30 May, 2023

Olivier De Schutter, U.N. special rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights addresses a press conference in Dhaka, Bangladesh, Monday, May 29, 2023. (AP Photo/Al-emrun Garjon)

Bangladesh should not bear the burden of more than 1 million Rohingya refugees alone while U.N. agencies are facing challenges to feed them, a United Nations official said Monday, AP reports.

Myanmar Rohingya: What future for the refugee baby lucky to survive?

BBC
By Rajini Vaidyanathan
BBC News, Cox's Bazar, Bangladesh

Anwar Sadiq was just hours old when a BBC team first met him in a refugee camp in Bangladesh in September 2017.

A thin cotton cloth was all his mother Mohsena had to cover him, as she cradled her tiny baby under a flimsy makeshift tent, on an empty patch of land.

Five years on, the life of the little boy who entered the world in the most precarious of circumstances remains fragile.

Rohingya refugees demand citizenship and security on first return to Myanma

CNN
Story by Reuters
Published  Sun May 7, 2023 

Rohingya refugees and Bangladeshi officials return after visiting Myanmar's Rakhine state as part of an effort to encourage their voluntary repatriation, in Cox's Bazar, Bangladesh, on May 5.Stringer/Reuter
 

Rohingya refugees in Bangladesh said on Saturday they would not return to Myanmar to “be confined in camps” after making their first return visit as part of efforts to encourage their voluntary repatriation.

Nearly a million Rohingya Muslims live in squalid camps in the Bangladeshi border district of Cox’s Bazar.

Most have been there since fleeing a military-led crackdown in Buddhist-majority Myanmar in 2017 and had not returned until now, although Bangladeshi officials have made several trips to Myanmar as they seek to repatriate the refugees.

51 Rohingya refugees detained in Bandarban

Dhaka Tribune
S Bashu Das, Bandarban
Published: April 26, 2023

All the detainees are residents of the Cox's Bazar Rohingya camps

Representational image Bigstock

Army and police members from Bandarban held 51 Rohingyas, who concealed their identity, and were working as garden workers in Sadar upazila.

 

They were detained on Wednesday after searching a bus headed to Chakria and a jeep going to Alikadam at the Yangcha check post on the Lama Fansiakhali road of the upazila,
 

All the detainees are residents of the Cox's Bazar Rohingya camps.