Internet, mobile network restored for Rohingya refugees

Bangladesh, Help Refugees, Human Rights, Myanmar, Refugees Issues, Refugees issues

Bangladesh’s government has restored the high-speed mobile network and internet for the Rohingya refugee camps in Cox’s Bazar.

The 3G and 4G mobile networks and internet were restored on Friday amid repeated calls from UN agencies and rights groups to uphold the basic rights of the persecuted Rohingya, about 1 million of whom fled to southeastern Bangladesh after a 2017 crackdown by Myanmar’s military.

Following inter-ministerial meetings, Bangladesh’s government took the decision to restore the mobile network about a year after its suspension.

A task force formed by the government Wednesday sent a letter to the Post and Telecommunication Ministry, restoring the services, officials said.

“Following the government decision, the 3G and 4G mobile network and the internet have been restored today,” Md. Mahbub Alam Talukder, Bangladesh’s refugee relief and repatriation commissioner (RRRC), told Anadolu Agency.

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“Various mobile network service companies have already started providing high-speed mobile and internet services.”

Restoration of the service is important for better services to the Rohingya people amid the pandemic, said the commissioner.

Earlier, he had urged the government to provide digital communications services to the 1.2 million displaced Rohingya Muslims in Cox’s Bazar.

In September 2019 Bangladesh imposed a ban on the use of cellphone SIM cards and the internet by Rohingya refugees on security grounds. Since then, rights groups, UN agencies, and Rohingya refugees repeatedly asked for the restoration. Some Rohingya, however, continued to use mobile SIM cards in secret.