BANGLADESH
Cast Away
Human rights groups on Thursday urged Bangladesh to stop its plan to send thousands of Rohingya refugees to a remote island off its coast over safety concerns, Al Jazeera reported.
Bangladeshi authorities are preparing to relocate refugees to Bhasan Char – a flood-prone Bay of Bengal island that emerged from the sea 20 years ago – in order to resolve overcrowding in its refugee camps in Cox’s Bazar, home to more than one million Rohingya Muslims.
Officials said that housing has been built for 100,000. The relocation will occur during the November to April dry season, they added.
Activists, however, worry that the island has never been inhabited, is flood-prone and vulnerable to cyclones. The United Nations, meanwhile, said that it has been given “limited information” about the relocation and has not been allowed by Bangladeshi authorities to assess the island.
In 2017, more than 730,000 Rohingya fled from Myanmar to neighboring Bangladesh following a military-led crackdown that the UN has said had genocidal intent. Thousands died in the operation.
Myanmar denies the allegations and says its forces were fighting against Rohingya rebels who had attacked police posts.
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