They had fled across the border to Bangladesh amid heavy fighting between the Myanmar military and rebel insurgents in Rakhine
The home ministry announced their promotions in a circular on Sunday.
One of the 18 is Additional DIG Monirul Islam who is also the Detective Branch joint commissioner of Dhaka Metropolitan Police.
Islam has been the DMP spokesperson for a long time.
Islam and 17 other Superintendent-level officials of police were promoted to additional DIGs on Apr 7 last year.