Soldiers from your own government come to destroy your village. With well-practiced terror tactics, they systematically rape and kill your neighbors and then torch everyone’s home. You somehow manage to escape and get across the border to what you hope will be safety in a new country.
But there, the police abuse you mercilessly.
This is what many Rohingya refugees are facing in Bangladesh today.
Some 730,000 Rohingya fled the Myanmar military’s sweeping campaign of massacres, rape, and arson in northern Rakhine State that started more than five years ago, with security forces slaughtering thousands and burning down nearly 400 villages.
But while they escaped the Myanmar military’s crimes against humanity and acts of genocide, they now find themselves stuck in precarious, flood-prone camps in Bangladesh. And once again, people who should be looking after their security are the ones most threatening it.
Bangladesh’s Armed Police Battalion (APBn) is committing extortion, arbitrary arrests, and harassment of Rohingya refugees, new reporting details.
One typical scheme goes like this… First, the APBn detain you on fabricated drug charges. Framing suspects with drugs is common practice by Bangladesh security forces.
Then, they run a shakedown. If you want to avoid arrest, police will demand 10,000-40,000 taka (US$100-400) from you. For the release of a detained family member, you will have to fork out 50,000-100,000 taka ($500-1,000). Refugee families often have to sell what little they have or borrow money.
The problem is getting worse. Police abuses have in fact escalated amid increasingly coercive restrictions on livelihoods, movement, and education in the camps, including harassment at checkpoints and closing community schools and markets.
This is not how the police should treat anyone, let alone people who’ve had to flee their homes in the face of mass atrocity crimes.
Donor governments should press the Bangladesh authorities to investigate.
