During its 103rd Session in August 2025, the UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention considered the detention of Mr Dil Mohammed, a refugee from Myanmar who fled in August 2017 and became a prominent Rohingya community leader to the Rohingya refugee encampment in ‘No Mans Land’ – the ‘buffer zone’ between the borders of Bangladesh and Myanmar. On 20 October 2025, the UN Working Group issued a decision finding his detention since January 2023 by Bangladesh to be ‘arbitrary’ under international law and that his fundamental human rights were violated by Bangladesh, and recommending his immediate release.
Haydee Dijkstal acted as counsel for Mr Dil Mohammed before the UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention throughout proceedings before the UN body. A complaint was submitted to the UN Working Group on behalf of Mr Dil Mohammed in September 2024 to raise his prolonged and abusive detention in Bangladesh since 19 January 2023. Ms Dijkstal was assisted in preparing the complaint by Nina Reinach, also of 33 Bedford Row Chambers. Raised before the WGAD were serious violations to Mr Dil Mohammed rights, including - the right against enforced disappearance, serious violations of his fair trial and due process rights, and the right against abusive treatment for treatment such as holding him in a location akin to a ‘blacksite’ and in prolonged solitary confinement, and abusively threatening the physical safety of him and his family.
The Working Group’s decision, issued in October 2025, found Mr Dil Mohammed’s ongoing detention to be arbitrary under international law under Category’s I and III of the criteria for finding a deprivation of liberty to be arbitrary. Here, the Working Group found that:
- Mr Dil Mohammed’s detention “lacks any legal basis and is thus arbitrary under Working Group’s category I”; and
- “the violations of Mr. Mohammed’s fair trial and due process rights are of such gravity as to give his detention an arbitrary character under category III”
The Working Group also found that Mr Dil Mohammed “was subjected to enforced disappearance, in breach of article 9 of the [International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights].”
The Working Group stated that the “appropriate remedy” for Mr Dil Mohammed’s treatment “would be to release Mr. Mohammed immediately and accord him an enforceable right to compensation and other reparations, in accordance with international law”, while urging Bangladesh “ensure a full and independent investigation of the circumstances surrounding the arbitrary deprivation of liberty of Mr. Mohammed, and to take appropriate measures against those responsible for the violation of his rights.” The Working Group asked the parties, including the Government of Bangladesh, to report within 6 months as to whether it complied with the Working Group’s decision and recommendations.
The UN Working Group’s full decision can be found HERE:
https://www.ohchr.org/sites/default/files/documents/issues/detention-wg/opinions/session103/a-hrc-wgad-2025-39-bangladesh-aev.pdf
And the decision has been reported in the media here:
https://thediplomat.com/2025/11/un-declares-detention-of-rohingya-leader-arbitrary/
https://english.dvb.no/landmark-un-ruling-demands-bangladesh-free-detained-rohingya-leader-dil-mohammed/