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DhHAKA: Dozens of Rohingya refugees stranded at sea for weeks were relocated to a controversial flood-prone island in the Bay of Bengal, Bangladeshi officials said Monday (May 4).
Last year, Bangladesh built 100,000-person facilities on Bhashan Char, a cyclone-prone muddy islet in the coastal belt, saying they needed to take pressure off border camps that house nearly a million Rohingya.
The 28 Rohingya were brought to the island on Saturday night instead of the fields, as authorities feared they might be infected with the coronavirus, Chancellor A.K. Abdul Momen told AFP.
“Most likely, they will stay there until they return to Myanmar.”
They are the first group of Rohingya to be sent to the island, local government administrator Tanmoy Das told AFP, adding that they were being cared for by army personnel who had built the facilities.
Authorities said the group, which included 15 women and five children, were detained after disembarking on Saturday from one of two ships sucking at sea while trying to reach Malaysia.
No other 250 refugees have been found who also left the boat in six or seven boats, he added.
Bangladesh had refused to let the two trawlers carrying some 500 people land on its territory despite calls from the UN to allow them to enter as a powerful storm lashes the region.
So far, no cases of coronavirus have been confirmed in the sprawling camps at Bangladesh’s Cox’s Bazar that house Rohingya, which fled a 2017 military offensive in neighboring Myanmar.
The Rohingya community has strongly opposed the plan to move the refugees to Bhashan Char.
The UN refugee agency, UNHCR, said on Sunday that comprehensive evaluations were needed before anyone was transferred to the island, spokeswoman Louise Donovan told AFP.
“UNHCR has all the preparations to guarantee the safe quarantine of any refugee arriving by boat at Cox’s Bazar, as a precautionary measure related to the COVID-19 pandemic,” he added.
Human Rights Watch chief Meenakshi Ganguly said the relocation would put refugees “at greater risk after the suffering they have already suffered.”
In mid-April, 396 hungry refugees were rescued from a trawler stranded in the Bay of Bengal for more than two months. At least 60 people died in the boat.
The survivors were transferred to transit centers near the border camps where they were quarantined.
Thousands of Rohingyas try each year to reach other countries, making the dangerous journey in crowded and rickety ships. – AFP
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