Bangladeshi authorities sent the first group of more than 1,500 Rohingya refugees to an isolated island on Friday despite calls from human rights groups to halt the process. The 1,642 refugees boarded seven Bangladeshi navy ships at Chittagong port for the journey to Bhashan Char, according to an official who could not be identified according to local practice.
After a journey of about three hours, they reached the island, which was once regularly submerged by monsoon rains, but now has flood protection embankments, houses, hospitals and mosques built at a cost of more than $ 112 million per the Bangladesh Navy.
Located 34 kilometers (21 miles) from the mainland, the island appeared only 20 years ago and was never inhabited.
Saleh Noman, a Bangladeshi journalist who traveled with the refugees, said by phone from the island that the refugees were given rice, eggs and chickens for lunch after health workers measured their body temperature as coronavirus
caution.
Before boarding the ships, they were also given masks to protect against COVID-19. The island’s facilities are built to accommodate 100,000 people, just a fraction of the 1 million Rohingya Muslims who have fled waves of violent persecution in their native Burma and are currently living in crowded and squalid refugee camps in the Cox’s Bazar district.
The United Nations has expressed concern that the refugees will be allowed to make a “free and informed decision” on whether to move to the island in the Bay of Bengal.
The director of infrastructure development in Bhashan Char, Commodore Abdullah Al Mamun Chowdhury, told reporters on the island that the international community has nothing to worry about regarding the safety of the refugees.
He said he hopes the UN and others will be convinced of the general arrangements after visiting the island. When asked when it would be, he replied that the government is working on it.
On Thursday, 11 passenger buses carrying the refugees left Cox’s Bazar on their way to the island. They camped overnight in school buildings in the southeastern city of Chittagong. Cox’s Bazar authorities did not say how the refugees were selected for relocation.
Some 700,000 Rohingya fled to the Cox’s Bazar camps after August 2017, when the mostly Buddhist army in Myanmar launched a harsh crackdown on the Muslim group following an attack by insurgents. The crackdown included rape, murder and burning of thousands of homes, and was called ethnic cleansing by world rights groups and the UN. Foreign media have not been allowed to visit the island.
Contractors say its infrastructure is like a modern municipality, with multi-family concrete houses, schools, playgrounds and roads. It also has solar energy facilities, a water supply system and cyclone shelters.
International aid agencies and the UN have vehemently opposed the relocation since it was first proposed in 2015, expressing fears that a major storm could devastate the island and endanger thousands of lives.
The UN said in a statement Wednesday that it has not been involved in preparations for relocation or screening of refugees and has limited information on the overall plan.
“The United Nations takes this opportunity to highlight its long-standing position that Rohingya refugees should be able to make a free and informed decision about relocation to Bhasan Char based on relevant, accurate and up-to-date information,” he said.
Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch on Thursday urged the government to cancel the relocation plan. The current refugee camps near the town of Cox’s Bazar are overcrowded and unsanitary. Disease and organized crime are rampant. Education is limited and refugees cannot work.
Still, most Rohingya are unwilling to return to Myanmar due to security concerns. Government officials did not have an estimate of how many refugees would be willing to be relocated to the island.
Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina has repeatedly told the UN and other international partners that her administration would consult them before making a final decision on relocation and that no refugees would be forced to relocate.
Bangladesh tried to start sending refugees back to Myanmar on a bilateral basis last November, but no one was willing to go.
The Rohingya are not recognized as citizens in Myanmar, making them stateless and facing other forms of state-approved discrimination.
A 2018 UN-sponsored investigation recommended the prosecution of Myanmar’s top military commanders on charges of genocide, war crimes, and crimes against humanity for violence against the Rohingya.
Myanmar is defending itself at the International Court of Justice in The Hague, the Netherlands, after the African nation of The Gambia brought a case backed by the Organization for Islamic Cooperation, Canada and the Netherlands for the crackdown.
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