By Press TV
Video: BBC Bangla
“We are afraid of living near the water.
People say that it takes four hours by boat to reach the island... Even if they
force me to go there, I will not go,” another woman said, according to Fortify
Rights.
Bangladeshi officials, however, claim, “There
is no reason to be concerned about floods because we have built storm surge
embankment, with all other facilities.”
An international rights group has disputed
Bangladesh’s claims that thousands of Rohingya Muslim refugees have agreed to a
plan by the government to relocate them to a remote island that is prone to
devastating natural disasters.
Dhaka has long been planning to relocate
100,000 Rohingya Muslims to Bhashan Char Island in a declared bid to ease
overcrowding in the refugee camps in the mainland — which host nearly a million
Rohingya who fled a brutal military crackdown in Myanmar.
“Our officials are compiling the lists of the
refugees who are willing to move there,” Bangladesh’s refugee commissioner,
Mahbub Alam, said on Sunday, adding, “Approximately 6,000-7,000 refugees have
already expressed their willingness to be relocated” to the island within the
next few weeks.
However, Fortify Rights said on Friday that
it had interviewed 14 Rohingya refugees, some of whom were on the lists of
those willing to move, and found that none of them were informed about the plan
and “were opposed” to it.
“No one told me I was on the list,” the group quoted a woman, who was named to move to the remote island, as saying. “If the Bangladesh government forces me to go to the island, I will commit suicide by drinking poison here in the camp. I will not go there.”
“No one told me I was on the list,” the group quoted a woman, who was named to move to the remote island, as saying. “If the Bangladesh government forces me to go to the island, I will commit suicide by drinking poison here in the camp. I will not go there.”
Fortify Rights chief Matthew Smith said, “The
island is not a sustainable solution for refugees and no one knows that better
than the Rohingya themselves.”
The group had seen a copy of a list
identifying over 70 families. According to the report, officials were
pressuring Rohingya camp leaders to identify those to be moved.
Other rights groups have also expressed
concerns about relocating people to the island in the Bay of Bengal because it
is prone to devastating storms.
The UN agencies and major bilateral donors
have yet to approve the move.
Densely-populated Bangladesh has been
grappling with large refugee numbers. Bangladesh and Myanmar signed a
repatriation deal two years ago, but no refugee agreed to return to Myanmar.
The number of refugees in Bangladesh has
swelled since August 2017, when a military-led crackdown in Myanmar — which UN
investigators have said was conducted with “genocidal intent” — prompted some
740,000 Rohingya to flee to Bangladesh, which was already hosting some 200,000
Rohingya when the 2017 exodus began.
Thousands of Rohingya Muslims were killed,
injured, arbitrarily arrested, or raped by Myanmarese soldiers and Buddhist
mobs mainly between November 2016 and August 2017.
-
Suu Kyi: Myanmar constitution must change for
'complete democracy'
Myanmar's Aung San Suu Kyi scolds world for
lacking focus on Rakhine 'terrorists' https://str.sg/JUho
French film exposes “Roots of Crimes” against
Myanmar’s Rohingya: https://mirsdq.blogspot.com/2019/10/roots-of-rohingya-genocide.html
Bangladesh to move Rohingya to flood-prone
island next month: https://mirsdq.blogspot.com/2019/10/bangladesh-to-move-rohingya-to-flood.html
“Rohingya must return to their home with
their full Rights” https://mirsdq.blogspot.com/2019/10/full-rights.html
Myanmar’s plan for Rohingya is still worse,
officially hates & discrimination continued: https://t.co/1hhiJqUSJm
Don’t forget to reach here: https://t.co/yY28vR35fZ to know about
inhumane of Myanmar against Rohingya.
@mir_sidiquee is a Human Rights Activist, DG
of R4R (Rohingya Human Rights Initiative) and researcher of Rohingya Crisis