Bangladesh to seal off Rohingya refugee camps for general election

The Election Commission has ordered the authorities not to allow Rohingyas outside the refugee camps for three days during the parliamentary election to prevent the abuse of the Myanmar nationals for vote or violence.

The authorities will also restrict movement of workers of NGOs and volunteers’ organisations into the camps in Cox’s Bazar.

The restrictions will be in place from 7:00pm on Dec 29 to 8:00am on Dec 31, according to an EC letter sent to the Public Security Division on Friday.

“Special surveillance is necessary to stop the abuse of the Rohingya refugees staying in Bangladesh for or against any candidate or for creating anarchy by any miscreants during the election,” the EC said in the letter.

It added that emergency food, relief or health services will not be subject to restrictions.

Copies of the letter were also sent to the foreign secretary, inspector general of police, disaster management and relief secretary, Chattogram divisional commissioner, the commissioner of refugee, relief and repatriation in Cox’s Bazar and other related authorities.

Bangladesh is going to the general election on Dec 30. The voting will be held from 8:00am to 4:00pm on the day.

Law-enforcing agencies in Bangladesh have been airing security concerns over the around 400,000 Rohingya refugees who have fled decades of persecution in Myanmar.

Many of them had damaged Bangladesh’s reputation by committing crimes abroad after they had travelled with forged Bangladeshi passports, officials allege.

As over 700,000 more Rohingyas have joined the refugees in Bangladesh after Myanmar last year launched a military operation, dubbed ‘ethnic cleansing’ by the UN, security experts fear the displaced population can easily be used by criminals.

Almost all of the over 1.1 million Rohingya refugees in Bangladesh are registered, according to the government.

Recently, the two countries tried to start repatriating the displaced Myanmar nationals, but the bid failed due to concerns over their security and dignity in their homeland, reports bdnews24.

Bangladesh government is also planning to relocate some of the Rohingyas to Noakhali’s Bhasan Char island.