Police release 39 foreigners held for trying to enter Rohingya camp without permission

Police have released 39 foreign nationals detained for attempting to enter the Rohingya refugee camps at Ukhiya in Cox’s Bazar without permissions.

Cox’s Bazar Additional Superintendent of Police Afruzul Haque Tutul said the law enforcers released the foreigners at around 4pm on Sunday to their respective organisations on getting undertakings that they would not do so in the future.

The nationals of the US, Japan, France, Turkey, Malaysia, the Netherlands, Denmark and several other countries are employed by various non-government organisations, including some international ones, and entered the Rohingya camps on ‘tourist visas’, he said.

They were detained at a checkpoint on Ukhiya’s Shaheed ATM Jafar Alam Road earlier in the afternoon, the police officer said.

Various security checkpoints have been set up on the roads in and out of Ukjiya and Teknaf to prevent Rohingya refugees from moving beyond the camp area.

“The passports and other documents of the foreign nationals were checked, and it was confirmed that they had entered Bangladesh on tourist visas,” Afrujul said.

They had been then taken to Ukhiya Police Station for questioning regarding their attempts to enter the Rohingya refugee camps without permission, he said.

On Feb 23, the Rapid Action Battalion or RAB detained 11 foreign nationals for not carrying passports near a Rohingya camp in the same area.

Police later released them after officials of their organisation, Médecins Sans Frontières or MSF, brought their passports and other documents.