findings iII: Justice and corruption Furthermore, the police interviewed alleged that this extortion is systemic throughout the APBn, reporting that some officers have ordered their constables to extort the Rohingya. “We got another incident report that an officer ordered his constables to extort money from the people,” said Hossain (pseudonym), an APBn officer. “The constables had to follow the order because they wanted to be close with their senior.” 78 Confiscation In addition to extortion, respondents reported often being questioned and physically searched by APBn at checkpoints. If Rohingya are found with money, smartphones, or laptops they are often stolen by APBn officers. Rohingya reported that, at times, officers justify these thefts by saying that Rohingya are not allowed to have smartphones or large amounts of money. Mohammed, a 71-year-old Rohingya man, shared his experience of police extortion and confiscation with the YCR team: “When I was going to Balukhali Market to buy some vegetables and fresh fish, the police stopped our CNG (small motorised transport) at their check post and they asked us to get out of the car. We were then taken to a room, and they snatched our money and smartphones and fined each of us 5,000 BDT (47 USD) without any reason. After giving the money, I asked the officer why did you take money from us, as you all know we are innocent and you didn’t get any illegal things from us? He said you’re a Rohingya and that it’s illegal to go outside of the camp with money.” 79 Other times they take issue with certain applications installed on smartphones, such as the money transfer application bKash, or use the fact that a phone has multiple SIM cards (particularly Myanmar SIM cards) as a justification for stealing them. Respondents reported that at times police will take their phones and then install bKash themselves to fabricate reasons to steal phones from Rohingya. “They check our bodies and cell phones,” said Dilshad, a 37-year-old Rohingya woman. “They charge us if they find anything that they think is illegal for us. Even if they don’t find anything, they install Bangladeshi money transfer apps on our phones, such as bKash, by themselves and charge us money. They even snatched our phones many times.” 80 Police respondents confirmed that the confiscation of Rohingya mobile phones happens often due to official prohibitions against Rohingya being allowed to own and use mobile phones in the camps. Hossain (pseudonym), an APBn officer, said this about the matter: “Using mobile phones and electronic devices is prohibited for the Rohingya according to the rules. However, the CIC internally permits majis (block-level officials) to use mobile phones in order to support the CIC. The rest of the population is not allowed to use mobile phones, but many people are using them now. However, we try to reduce the number of refugees using mobile phones in the camp. In such situations, some bad or corrupted officers extort money to allow them to continue to use mobile phones. Allowing Rohingya to use mobile phones is not in the rules of Rohingya response and CIC rules.” 81 78 79 80 81 Interview P01 Interview C09M Interview C03F Interview P01 46