Displaced Rohingya Management in Bangladesh and Law Enforcement Agencies’ Role

This paper explores the security issues which are handled by the Bangladesh Police as a Law Enforcing Agency due to the Rohingya presence in Cox’s Bazar and assesses the capability of Armed Police Battalions (APBn) to maintain a law-and-order situation in the Rohingya camps. Since 2017, more than 1.3 million Rohingyas have been living in Cox’s Bazar while their human rights have remained suspended. The large number of migrated stateless people are generating security issues in Cox’s Bazar and are thus threatening the daily lives of the refugees and local people of the host community. Using a mixed-method approach via content analysis, questionnaire surveys, KIIs, and FGDs, this study has explored the security issues, difficulties, weaknesses, and limitations of the APBn and assessed the capability of the APBn. The available sparse literature on the topic focuses on mostly social security dimensions of the Rohingya issue in Bangladesh. This study seeks to shift the focus from social changes to the more physical dimensions of safety and security for the Rohingya population as well as the host communities and assess the capability of Armed Police Battalions in handling the security issues of the Rohingya camps. The recommendations generated from this study will seek to provide reliable policy directives to better equip the Armed Police Battalions in handling the changing dynamics due to the emergent security threats generated by the Rohingya presence in Cox’s Bazar, Bangladesh.