Rights group says the Armed Police Battalion is engaged in extortion, harassment and wrongful arrests of refugees it's tasked with defending.
An elite Bangladesh police unit is engaged within the “rampant” extortion, harassment and wrongful arrests of the Rohingya refugees it has been tasked with defending, Human Rights Watch (HRW) alleges.
The Armed Police Battalion (APBn) operates in camps housing practically a million members of the stateless minority, most of whom fled neighbouring Myanmar after a navy crackdown that's now the topic of a genocide investigation by the United Nations.
Refugees and humanitarian employees informed the New York-based human rights watchdog that security had deteriorated after the unit took cost of camp safety in 2020. In a report outlining police conduct and launched by HRW on Tuesday, some Rohingya mentioned abuses had turn into “an everyday prevalence”.
“Abuses by police within the Cox’s Bazar camps have left Rohingya refugees struggling by the hands of the very forces who're supposed to guard them,” HRW Asia researcher Shayna Bauchner mentioned.
The rights group mentioned it had spoken to dozens of Rohingya refugees dwelling within the sprawling and overcrowded camp community in southeastern Bangladesh and documented no less than 16 circumstances of significant abuse by battalion officers.
Police demanded hefty bribes and threatened refugees with arrest if they didn't pay, HRW’s report mentioned, including that households had been typically pressured to promote gold jewelry or borrow cash to free unjustly detained family members.
“Police usually demanded 10,000-40,000 taka ($100-$400) to keep away from arrest, and 50,000-100,000 taka ($500-$1,000) for the discharge of a detained member of the family,” the report mentioned.
Bauchner referred to as on authorities to analyze the accusations and maintain accountable officers to account.
Battalion commander Syed Harunor Rashid mentioned the HRW report was “questionable”.
“Criminals are telling them false information, and [Human Rights Watch workers] are reporting them. That is like giving consolation to criminals,” he informed the AFP information company, including that the unit would examine if it “receives particular complaints”.
Police acknowledge that violence has spiked within the camps, that are residence to armed teams and are allegedly used as staging posts for regional drug trafficking networks.
No less than 20 refugees, together with prime neighborhood leaders, had been killed by armed teams final 12 months as a part of a turf struggle within the settlements.
Police extortion ‘an everyday prevalence’
A number of Rohingya refugees informed AFP that police abuses had been “rampant”.
“Just a few days in the past, I used to be returning to the camp with my brother’s medical report from a hospital,” Ali Jaker, 20, mentioned. “APBn officers stopped me on the checkpoint, interrogated me and slapped me.”
Jaker mentioned they stole the equal of $50 from him. “Then they took my cell phone,” he mentioned. “They threatened to take motion in opposition to me if I shared the story with anybody.”
Sitara Bibi, 45, referred to as police extortion “an everyday prevalence”.
“I needed to pay 3,000 taka [$30] to them throughout my son’s marriage,” she mentioned. “If we didn’t pay them, the police would file a drug smuggling case in opposition to my son.”
One Rohingya neighborhood chief, talking on the situation of anonymity, informed AFP that refugees had been pressured to pay police to journey between camps or to achieve entrance to camps late at night time.
“If anybody protests these abuses, he's arrested,” the chief mentioned.
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