Bangladesh has begun moving the second group of Rohingya refugees from overcrowded camps at Cox’s Bazar to a remote island in the Bay of Bengal, defying the protection concerns of international rights defenders.
Groups such as Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch (HRW) have called on the Bangladeshi government to suspend Rohingya’s travel to Bhasan Char, which is hours away from the mainland by boat, subject to floods, vulnerable to frequent cyclones and may be completely submerged during a high tide.
There are also concerns that the Rohingya, already displaced from Myanmar due to ethnic cleansing, may have been bribed to move to the island or may have faced intimidation tactics to persuade them to do so.
International law agencies suspect that the refugees were listed without their consent and asked Bangladesh to allow an independent inspection of the island.
The first group of 1,642 Rohingya refugees was moved to the island in early December.
Abdullah Al Mamun Chowdhury, a senior police officer and director of the Bhasan Char project, told Bangladesh’s The Daily Star newspaper that about 700 to 1,000 Rohingya refugees would be sent to the island on December 28 and 29, and that Bhasan Char was prepared to receive new arrivals.
Saad Hammadi, an Amnesty International activist in South Asia, said concerns about the move to Bhashan Char stem from a “lack of understanding about the safeguards for human rights there, including access to health care and the right to freedom of expression. movement between the island and Cox’s Bazaar ”.
Earlier this month, HRW said in a statement that there was limited information about the real conditions on the island, “and there are some claims that the authorities may have offered misleading information and incentives to move there.”
However, the Bangladeshi government has denied that there are grounds for concern. Mostafizur Rahman, Bangladesh’s permanent representative and ambassador to the UN office in Geneva, said Rohingyas was voluntarily relocated and that the government has taken steps to improve its quality of life, livelihood and security.
Mohammed Shamsud Douza, the deputy government official in charge of the refugees, said a 12 km long landfill was built to protect the island from flooding, along with housing for 100,000 people. The relocation was voluntary, he said.
“Nobody is forced to go there,” he said, adding that people can have a better life there with greater access to health and education.