DHAKA: Bangladesh said Wednesday it would start relocating tens ofthousands of Rohingya Muslims from overcrowded camps to a remote islandvulnerable to extreme weather, despite the plan attracting considerablecontroversy.
Shelters and flood walls have been constructed on Bhashan Char, a muddysilt islet that only rose from the Bay of Bengal in 2006, in the hope ofshifting 100,000 Rohingya refugees there.
Bangladesh has been talking about the island for years and the plan torelocate some of the nearly one million Rohingya refugees living along itsborder with Myanmar has stalled many times.
The proposal to uproot the refugees remains unpopular among the Rohingyacommunity and critics have raised concerns about the island’s ability towithstand violent storms during the monsoon.
But Mozammel Huq, the head of Bangladesh’s cabinet committee on law andorder and a senior government minister, said the relocation would proceedas planned.
“We plan to start the process next month, as construction at Bhashan Charis now complete,” he told AFP.
Kamal Hossain, the government administrator of Cox’s Bazar district wherethe vast Rohingya camps are located, told AFP they were “preparing a listof refugees who would voluntarily go to the island”.
– “New crisis” –
The island is one hour by boat from the nearest land and experts said itwas too risky to house the refugees on the island as it is prone toflooding during storm surge.
Hundreds of thousands have died in Bangladesh from cyclones in the last 50years, mostly in coastal areas.
Local officials have pointed to a newly-constructed three-metre (nine-feet)high embankment around the island they say will keep out tidal surges inthe event of a cyclone.
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But a top UN rights expert in January warned moving the refugees therecould spark a “new crisis” for the persecuted Muslim minority.
Huq said the UN “should concentrate on the welfare of the Rohingya instead”.
“It is up to Bangladesh to decide where we will keep the refugees,” he said.
Aid groups have warned the refugees crammed into the world’s largestrefugee camp in Cox’s Bazar are at risk of landslides, disease and floods.
The Rohingya fled Myanmar by droves in 2017 into Bangladesh, escaping amilitary-led crackdown the UN has said could amount to genocide.
An official from the International Criminal Court who visited the Rohingyacamps this week said those responsible for their persecution would be heldto account, despite Myanmar not being a signatory to the Hague-based court.
US ambassador Earl Miller met with Bangladesh government officials onTuesday in Cox’s Bazar to “learn more” about the island relocation.
“He welcomed assurances that any movements to the island will be fullyvoluntary, based on informed consent, and those who choose to go will havefree movement off the island to maintain connections with the rest of theRohingya community in Cox’s Bazar,” a statement from the US embassy said.
