Landmark UN ruling demands Bangladesh free detained Rohingya leader Dil Mohammed

Shafiur Rahman

The U.N. Working Group on Arbitrary Detention (WGAD) has delivered a landmark ruling, declaring the nearly three-year detention of prominent Rohingya community spokesperson Dil Mohammed in Bangladesh to be arbitrary and unlawful under international law. 

The decision calls for Mohammed’s immediate release, compensation, and a full, independent investigation into the human rights violations he has suffered.

The ruling, adopted by the WGAD in August and made public this week, is the first of its kind concerning the detention of a specific, prominent Rohingya refugee leader inside Bangladesh. 

It places unprecedented international scrutiny on the systemic treatment of displaced persons within the country’s borders.

Dil Mohammed, a spokesperson who previously engaged with U.N. officials, diplomats, and media from the now-destroyed “No Man’s Land” Rohingya encampment on the Bangladesh-Myanmar border, was seized on January 19, 2023.