Refugees and aid workers say some of the refugees were forced to go to the flood-prone island of Bhashan Char.
More than 1,600 Rohingya refugees set sail from Chittagong port in southern Bangladesh on Friday for the remote island of Bhasan Char in the Bay of Bengal, a naval official said, despite opposition from humanitarian groups against the move. .
The South Asian nation says it is only moving refugees who are willing to go and that this will alleviate chronic overcrowding in camps hosting more than a million Rohingya, members of a Muslim minority who have fled neighboring Myanmar. .
But refugees and aid workers say some of the Rohingya were forced to go to Bhashan Char, a flood-prone island that emerged from the sea 20 years ago.
The naval officer said the Rohingya were aboard seven ships, with two more carrying supplies.
Photographs taken from one of the boats showed the refugees lined up in blue plastic chairs under the surveillance of uniformed sailors.
“The government is not taking anyone to Bhashan Char by force. We hold this position, ”Foreign Minister Abdul Momen told reporters late on Thursday.
“My family did not want to go, they are being forcibly taken if my family goes to the island, they will die from the floods,” a woman told Al Jazeera.
Human rights and humanitarian groups have said the island is prone to flooding and vulnerable to frequent cyclones, while the government has not allowed the United Nations to carry out a security assessment.
“From what we were told, living conditions are good,” Al Jazeera’s Tanvir Chowdhury said from Cox’s Bazar.
“They have rooms that can accommodate up to four people, there are two hospitals, with 20-bed hospitals, there is a police station. “
“But they [told us] they don’t want to be there, they [want] being close to their homeland … and they have extended family all over the country, they can visit it ”, he added.
Photographs taken aboard one of the ships showed refugees under the surveillance of uniformed sailors. [Mohammad Ponir Hossain/Reuters]
An 18-year-old woman said her husband had put their names on the list thinking it was for food rations. He fled when they were told to go to Bhasan Char, he said, adding that he is also hiding in the camp.
They were among the more than 730,000 Rohingya who fled Myanmar in 2017 following an army-led crackdown that the UN says was carried out with genocidal intent. Myanmar denies the genocide and says its forces targeted Rohingya rebels who attacked police posts.
Human Rights Watch said it interviewed 12 families whose names were on the lists but who had not volunteered to go, while Refugees International said the move was “nothing less than a dangerous mass detention of the Rohingya people in violation of the international human rights obligations “.
Two aid workers, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said the refugees had been pressured by government officials who used threats and offers of cash and other incentives to persuade them to go to the island.
More than 300 refugees were brought to the island earlier this year after several months at sea in an attempt to flee Bangladesh. Human rights groups say they are being held against their will and have complained of human rights violations.
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