Rohingya Refugee Response in Bangladesh: Legal Protection Factsheet – as of 31 March 2022 – Bangladesh

Attachments

KEY ACTIVITIES

Protection Monitoring in Camps

UNHCR staff conduct protection monitoring with the help of refugee volunteers across all 33 camps, to identify the protection needs of refugees, monitor security and protection incidents, and provide support by referring victims and survivors who require immediate response to relevant services. Additionally, the UNHCR toll-free protection hotline, available daily for refugees from 08:00 to 23:00, provides an alternative channel for refugees in camps who needed information, share complaints, raise their concerns, or seek support.

Access to Justice and Legal Support

UNHCR works with lawyers from partner organizations and trained paralegal refugee volunteers to identify and refer refugees in need of legal aid. Legal aid services provided through legal partners in all 33 camps include legal awareness, legal counselling, mediation, assistance to lodge complaints at police stations and courts, and representation in court. Additionally, UNHCR and legal partners engage with police, camp administration officials, and justice sector actors to advocate for appropriate and timely interventions by law enforcement agencies in cases of serious crimes and reinforce refugees’ access to the national justice system. As part of its monitoring of arrests and detention cases, UNHCR works closely with its legal partners to ensure legal assistance is provided to refugees arrested or in detention.

Anti-Trafficing Working Group

With IOM, UNHCR co-chairs the Anti-Trafficking Working Group, leading a collective strategy for anti-trafficking interventions in the camps, in line with the national anti-trafficking strategy. The strategy is at 1) Preventing human trafficking through awareness raising in the camps; 2) Protecting victims of human trafficking through protection services including legal assistance; and 3) Building the capacity of key stakeholders by mainstreaming anti-trafficking mechanisms, providing technical guidance, and training. Since January, the Working Group, made up of 15 international and national organizations, has developed a work plan for 2022 and organized nine trainings with government officials and humanitarian staff.

Training and Capacity Development

UNHCR provides government officials and humanitarian staff with capacity development training on a range of issues relating to the protection of refugees. In January, UNHCR organized a workshop on “Facilitating Access to Justice and Legal Aid by Rohingya Refugees” for 50 police officers from nine police stations in Cox’s Bazar District. 67 lawyers from UNHCR’s legal partners were trained on identifying and providing legal aid to victims of human trafficking.