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September 10, 2019

Bangladesh Imposes Mobile Phone Blackout on Rohingya Refugees
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Bangladesh has imposed a mobile phone blackout on Rohingya refugees,
further isolating up to a million displaced people living in refugee
camps. By order of the Bangladeshi telecommunications minister, only
residents with national identity cards will be allowed to possess local
cellphone SIM cards. The order also bars the sale of cellphones in
Rohingya refugee camps and will fine telecom companies that violate the
order. Two years ago, hundreds of thousands of Rohingya fled to
Bangladesh from Burma's Rakhine State after Burmese authorities launched
a campaign that the U.N. has described as a "textbook example of ethnic
cleansing."


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