Bangladesh on Monday ordered operators to shut down mobile phone services to almost one million Rohingya refugees living in camps in the country's southeast, an official said. The move follows an outbreak of violence in recent weeks at the camps, most of whose residents fled into Bangladesh from Myanmar's Rakhine state two years ago following a military crackdown on the Muslim Rohingya minority.
It also comes after none of the refugees turned up in late August to return across the border to conflict-scarred Rakhine, when a fresh push to repatriate the refugees to Myanmar fell flat. Telecommunications operators have seven days to submit reports on the actions they have taken to shut down networks in the camps, said the spokesman for the Bangladesh Telecommunication Regulatory Commission (BTRC), Zakir Hossain Khan.
"Many refugees are using mobile phones in the camps. We've asked the operators to take action to stop it," he told AFP, saying the decision was made on "security grounds". The order stunned the Rohingya, one of their leaders said on condition of anonymity.