Bangladesh clamps down on Rohingya refugee camps

It began with a message on WhatsApp. Soon, the notification calling for Rohingya refugees to attend a mass rally in Bangladesh Cox’s Bazar spread to popular social media sites.

The rally, marking two years since the start of the Rohingya exodus from Myanmar, was attended by more than 100,000 refugees on Aug. 25. Now, to avoid any future rallies, Bangladeshi authorities have clamped down on the internet in Cox’s Bazar and heightened surveillance.

“The mass gathering created a lot of tension (with host communities), so we had to increase monitoring of the refugee camps,” Ashraful Afsar, additional district commissioner of Cox’s Bazar, told Arab News, adding that authorities are trying to track the rally’s sources of funds.

“We came to know that many Rohingyas contributed from their pocket to organize the rally,” he said, adding that some refugees were illegally employed outside the camps, with some making money by selling humanitarian aid in local markets.

“To restrict Rohingyas’ movement outside the refugee camps and ensure the security of host communities, we’re planning to build barbed wire fencing along the camp areas,” Afsar said.

“We’re afraid that some Rohingyas may get involved with smuggling the drug Yaba, which is smuggled from Myanmar.”

But Rohingya community leader Mohammed Nur told Arab News that funds for the rally were raised from legitimate salaries, with nearly 10,000 Rohingyas employed by local and international NGOs.

Last week, the Bangladesh Telecommunication Regulatory Commission directed all mobile operators to shut down 3G and 4G internet services from 5 p.m. to 6 a.m. every day.