Rohingya refugees in Bangladesh Fears of forced removals move to the remote island

Numbers of Rohingya refugees in Bangladesh are being relocated to a controversial island facility into the Bay of Bengal today amid worries that some could be coerced to move there and kept indefinitely.

Rohingya refugees are transported on a naval vessel to Bhashan Char, or floating island, in the Bay of Bengal, from Chittagong, Bangladesh, Friday, Dec. 4, 2020. Authorities in Bangladesh on Friday started sending a first group of nearly more than 1,500 Rohingya refugees to an isolated island despite calls by human rights groups for a halt to the process. (AP Photo).

Bangladesh: Numbers of Rohingya refugees in Bangladesh are being relocated to a controversial island facility into the Bay of Bengal today amid worries that some could be coerced to move there and kept indefinitely.

One ship carrying 1642 refugees is travelling toward Bhasan Char, an island about 40 kilometres (24 miles) off the coast near some city of Chittagong, as per the Shahriar Alam, Bangladesh Minister of State for Foreign Affairs.

The Bangladeshi government has contributed years constructing a network of houses on the island to accommodate higher to 100,000 people currently living in sprawling refugee camps into Cox’s Bazar, near the Myanmar border.

But human rights groups and some refugees themselves have long expressed concerns over the protection of the abandoned, low-lying island, as it often becomes partially sunk during monsoon season and is vulnerable to cyclones.

Human Rights Watch has reported conditions on the island as “poor” with Rohingya likely facing a shortage of adequate medical care. The group has also expressed matters that refugees there could be refused freedom of movement, sustainable livelihoods or education. It is also unclear what role — if any — humanitarian agencies will be allotted to have there.

In a statement, Refugees International told the relocation was “short-sighted and inhumane,” and should be stopped.

“Without proper assessments and adequate information for refugees about conditions on the island, the steps nothing short of a critical mass detention of the Rohingya people in violation of international human rights obligations,” stated Daniel Sullivan, the group’s elderly human rights advocate.

The Bangladeshi foreign minister stated he didn’t understand why aid agencies were against the move and described reports of pressure as “absolutely baseless.”