House and Senate Leaders Urge Bangladesh to Restore Telecommunications for Rohingya Refugees in Coronavirus Pandemic

Washington—Representative Eliot L. Engel, Chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee; Senator Bob Menendez, Ranking Member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee; Senator Ed Markey, Ranking Member of the Senate Foreign Relations Subcommittee on East Asia; Senator Chris Murphy; Representative Andy Levin; and Representative Ami Bera, Chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Subcommittee on Asia, the Pacific, and Nonproliferation, today called on the government of Bangladesh to restore telecommunication access in Rohingya refugee camps, underscoring the critical role of communications technology as a public health tool to combat the spread of coronavirus.

In a letter to the Foreign Minister of Bangladesh, the lawmakers urged the Bangladeshi government to lift current restrictions on internet and mobile phone access in the Cox’s Bazar Rohingya refugee camp, emphasizing that these technologies are necessary for sharing life-saving medical information, conducting contact tracing, and facilitating health and humanitarian services.

“We are concerned the internet and phone restrictions in Rohingya refugee camps are hampering efforts to fight the pandemic. We encourage your government to work with humanitarian groups to lift these communications restrictions in the camps, ensuring that information and humanitarian assistance continue to flow unimpeded... The internet and telecommunication restrictions have kept aid groups from performing their life-saving services effectively and efficiently,” the lawmakers wrote.

Full text of the letter can be found here and below:

Dear Minister Momen:

We are writing to reiterate our thanks to your government and the Bangladeshi people for generously hosting almost a million Rohingya refugees, particularly in light of the global COVID-19 pandemic. As countries around the world work to contain and combat the spread of the coronavirus, ensuring access to timely, reliable information, especially medical information, is critical for keeping people safe.

We are concerned the internet and phone restrictions in Rohingya refugee camps are hampering efforts to fight the pandemic. We encourage your government to work with humanitarian groups to lift these communications restrictions in the camps, ensuring that information and humanitarian assistance continue to flow unimpeded. With the outbreak rapidly spreading, delays in obtaining information about symptoms or prevention methods risk increasing transmission among refugees, the host community in Cox’s Bazar, and aid providers.

Moreover, aid workers and community leaders operating in the camps rely on internet-based communication to coordinate emergency health services and conduct crucial “contact tracing” to reduce the virus’s transmission. The internet and telecommunication restrictions have kept aid groups from performing their life-saving services effectively and efficiently. The inability to reliably contact loved ones also adds unnecessary stress for everyone navigating COVID-19 related hardships. 

We must all work together in these extraordinary times to take care of each other and those most vulnerable to the virus. Even as we recognize that crimes perpetrated by the Burmese military initiated the Rohingya crisis, we urge your government to restore internet and telecommunications services in Cox’s Bazar as soon as possible.

Thank you for your attention to this urgent matter.