Bangladesh has begun moving Rohingya families from camps near the Myanmar border to a remote island settlement, despite concerns over its security and the lack of refugee consent.
Families were spotted on Wednesday night in buses carrying white sacks of luggage, which they tugged at in the port city of Chittagong for transport to Bhasan Char by boat. Came to take. Regional police chief Anwar Hussein told AFP that about 1,000 people had already been evacuated.
Bangladesh said it planned to relocate 2,500 families but rights groups say the refugees were listed without their consent. They called on Bangladesh to stop migration to allow independent inspection of the island.
Saad Hamamadi, Amnesty International’s South Asia correspondent, said: “It is crucial that Bangladeshi authorities allow the UN, rights groups and humanitarian agencies to independently assess the existence of Bhashan Char before taking any steps to relocate people there. Elsewhere, it cannot be carried out without the full and informed consent of the persons involved. ”
Refugees in Kutupalong say people are worried, they have stayed close to their homes since the migration began, and all transport inside the camp has been banned by authorities.
About 300 Rohingyas have been stranded at Bhasan Char since April after taking off at sea. Allegations of sexual assault have been leveled against the guards, and a video of women being allowed to return to the mainland has surfaced after a delegation of camp leaders called Majis was taken by Bangladesh in September.
Formed from mudslides in the Bay of Bengal just 20 years ago, Bhasan Char’s exposure to extreme weather and distance from the mainland during the crisis has caused concern since Bangladesh first introduced the idea in 2015.
The Rohingya themselves resisted the migration, but with 700,000 more refugees fleeing Myanmar’s ethnic cleansing three years ago, many are fed up with the situation in the crowded settlements.
“We went to the island and I am satisfied with the arrangements there,” said Mohammed Hanif, 40, a resident of the Kutupalong camp, the world’s largest refugee camp. They have good accommodation, mosques and madrassas, markets. And the government promised that there would be no shortage of help and support from the UN and other agencies. “
Hanif said his wife and children were worried about relocating but they were convinced after he spoke about the facilities available.
He said he had been told that the same NGO was operating in the mainland camp and would also help with the four. However, the UN has not yet agreed to work on the island, and on Wednesday the UNHCR said in a statement that it was not involved in the migration and asked Bangladesh to allow an urgent assessment of the island.
Bangladesh has insisted that the new houses on Bhasan Char are better than Cox’s Bazar bamboo shelters, and has built flood defenses.
“We were told that there would also be Bangladeshi officials on the island. So whatever difficulties we face on the island, Bangladeshis will also face it… so I think the bad island must have facilities to survive in bad weather conditions. “The officials told us that the Bangladeshi government has done a lot for us and they gave us shelter and food, they expect us to follow their plan. Because it is for our own good. ”
Human Rights Watch and the Bangkok-based advocacy group Fortify Rights said they had spoken to the refugees in hiding because their names were on the migration list. They also warned against making false promises and threatening to force consent.
Mohammed Anis, 33, said he decided to move because he did not want to stay in Bangladesh for long. “I don’t want to go to the island. And no one from my block knows he wants to go either way, ”said Mani Anis, who lives in Kutupalong. “We do not believe that they can force many of these people to move against their will under the supervision of the international community. Our demand is only rational and that is to bring us back to Myanmar, we do not want to be refugees all our lives. ”
The Cox’s Bazar area is home to more than a million Rohingya refugees, who arrived in Myanmar’s Rakhine state in the early 1990s after a spate of violence.
