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Bangladesh wants to move thousands
of Rohingya
refugees from their camps in Cox's Bazar
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The Bangladesh government is
moving to relocate tens of thousands of Rohingya Muslim refugees to a
vulnerable island in the Bay of Bengal.
A government directive said
they would be transferred to Thengar Char before being repatriated to Myanmar.
Rights groups have raised
strong objections to the plan, saying it amounts to a forced relocation.
Thengar Char is engulfed by
several feet of water at high tide, and has no roads or flood defenses.
It was formed about a decade
ago by sediment from the River Meghna, and does not appear on most maps. The
low-lying land is around 30km (18 miles) east of Hatiya Island, which has a
population of 600,000 – and nine hours’ journey from the camps where the
Rohingya have taken shelter.
An official in the region
told the AFP news agency Thengar Char was “only accessible during winter and is
a haven for pirates”.
The official said trees had
been planted in a bid to protect the land from flooding, but these efforts were
at least a decade off completion.
"It completely
inundates during the monsoon," the official told AFP.
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Thengar Char is too remote
to appear on maps,
but is next to Hatiya Island
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"It's a terrible idea
to send someone to live there."
In Myanmar, the Rohingya are
denied citizenship and treated as illegal migrants from Bangladesh.
But in Bangladesh too they
are unwanted - leaving them persecuted, impoverished and effectively stateless.
Officials say an estimated
65,000 Rohingya have crossed into Bangladesh since October, fleeing violence in
Myanmar's western state of Rakhine.
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Many of the Rohingya have
lived in their current
refugee colonies for many years
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Some 232,000 - Registered
and unregistered – both were already living in Bangladesh before that influx,
many in refugee camps with poor facilities.
Now the Bangladesh
government has set up a committee of state officials to help identify and
relocate undocumented Myanmar nationals.
A push to attract tourists
is being blamed in part for the proposal, which has the backing of Prime
Minister Sheikh Hasina.
Cox's Bazar, which houses
32,000 Rohingya in a squalid refugee colony, is home to the world's longest
unbroken beach and Bangladesh's largest resort. Officials fear the presence of
the Rohingya may put off would-be holidaymakers.
Read more on: http://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-38799586