Bangladesh to go 2,000-3,000 additional Rohingya to remote island
Bangladesh will move 2,000-3,000 even more Rohingya Muslim refugees to a remote island found in the Bay of Bengal this week, a good navy officer said on Wednesday, despite problems by rights groups worried about the site's vulnerability to storms and flooding.
Bangladesh has relocated about 3,500 of the refugees from neighbouring Myanmar to Bhasan Char island since early on December from border camps where a million are in ramshackle huts perched on razed hillsides.
Bhasan Char emerged from the sea only 2 decades ago and is several hours by boat from the nearest port at Chittagong. The Rohingya, a minority group who fled violence in Buddhist-majority Myanmar, aren't allowed to move off the island without government permission.
"Most probably, they will be taken up to Chittagong tomorrow and the very next day, they will be delivered to Bhasan Char from there," Navy Commodore Abdullah Al Mamun Chowdhury told Reuters.
"Last time, we'd preparations for 700 to at least one 1,000 but finally a lot more than 1,800 Rohingya moved there. Individuals who moved before are calling their family members and friends to proceed there. That is why more people 're going there."
Bangladesh justifies the move to the island saying overcrowding in the camps found in Cox's Bazar is resulting in crimes.
It also dismisses worries of floods, citing the development of a good 2-metre (6.5 feet) embankment for 12 km (7.5 miles) to safeguard the island along with housing for 100,000 people, together with facilities such as for example cyclone centres and hospitals.
Its actions, nevertheless, have attracted criticism from pain relief agencies which have not been consulted on the transfers.
"The U.N. offers previously shared terms of reference with the federal government for the specialized and coverage assessments to evaluate the safeness and sustainability of life on Bhasan Char, though we have not but been permitted to handle these assessments," the UN refugee agency said in an email.
"We emphasize that all activities to Bhasan Char must be voluntary and based upon full information regarding the conditions of lifestyle on the island and the rights and providers that refugees should be able to access there."
The federal government says the relocation is voluntary but some refugees from the first group that went there in early December possess spoken of being coerced.
