BD university suspends student for being Rohingya

COX’S BAZAR, Bangladesh: A Bangladesh university has suspended a student for being Rohingya, officials said on Sunday, as impatience with the refugees grows following a second failed attempt to repatriate them to Myanmar.

Some 740,000 of the Muslim minority fled to camps in southeast Bangladesh after a military crackdown in Myanmar’s Rakhine state in August 2017, joining 200,000 Rohingya already there.

Formal education in Bangladesh is forbidden for refugees. Cox’s Bazar International University said it had suspended Rahima Akter Khushi, 20, and would investigate her case after local media said she hid her Rohingya identity to enrol.

"Rohingya can’t be admitted to our university, because they are refugees," the institution’s head Abul Kashem said. "Foreigners can study here, but they must follow a procedure." He said the young woman had supplied documents showing she completed high-school studies in Bangladesh’s port city of Chittagong.