ISLE HOME FOR ROHINGYA IN BAY OF BENGAL

It is to ease congestion at camps in Cox’s Bazar, says Bangladesh PM

BANGLADESH is racing to turn an uninhabited and muddy Bay of Bengal island into home for 100,000 Rohingya Muslims who have fled a military crackdown in Myanmar, amid conflicting signals from top Bangladeshi officials about whether the refugees would end up being stranded there.

Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina said on Monday that putting Rohingya on the low-lying island would be a “temporary arrangement” to ease congestion at the camps in Cox’s Bazar, refuge for nearly 700,000 who have crossed from the north of Myanmar’s Rakhine State since the end of August.

However, one of her advisers said once there, they could only leave the island if they wanted to return to Myanmar or were selected for asylum by a third country.

“It’s not a concentration camp, but there may be some restrictions. We are not giving them a Bangladeshi passport or ID card,” said Hasina’s adviser, H.T. Imam, adding that the island would have a police encampment with 40 to 50 armed personnel.

British and Chinese engineers were helping prepare the island to receive refugees before the onset of monsoon rains, which could bring disastrous flooding to ramshackle camps further south that teemed with about a million Rohingya. The rains could start as early as late April.

Imam said the question of selecting Rohingya in Cox’s Bazar to move to the island was not finalised, but it could be decided by lottery or on a volunteer basis.

The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees said in a statement: “We would emphasise that any relocation plan involving refugees would need to be based on, and implemented through, voluntary and informed decisions.” appeared to be a helipad.

Floating Island, which emerged from the silt only about 20 years ago, is about 30km from the mainland. Flat and shape-shifting, it regularly floods during June to September. Pirates roam the nearby waters to kidnap fishermen for ransom, residents of nearby islands say.

The plans showed metal-roofed, brick buildings raised on pylons and fitted with solar panels. There will be 1,440 blocks, each housing 16 families.

HR Wallingford, a British engineering and environmental hydraulics consultancy, is advising the project on “coastal stabilisation and flood protection measures”, the company said in a statement earlier this month.

“The coastal infrastructure design is expected to include a flood defence embankment protecting the development area to international standards, set back from the shoreline,” it said. The company referred further inquiries to the Bangladesh Navy.

Amnesty International South Asia deputy director Omar Waraich said there was “no one in the humanitarian community who thought this was a good idea”.

“This is a silt island that only emerged into view recently.”

However, a senior member of the prime minister’s staff, director-general Kabir Anwar, said humanitarian organisations critical of the plan were “absolutely wrong because they don’t understand the topography” of Bangladesh.

The government was building cyclone shelters on the island, he said, adding that there were salttolerant padi and people living there could fish or graze cows and buffalo.

Anwar also dismissed concerns about delivering basic aid to the island.

“We don’t need help from any foreign NGOs or local NGOs. We can feed them,” he said.

Many Rohingya rejected the idea of moving to an island even further from Myanmar, which many of them have called home for generations.

Jahid Hussain, a Rohingya refugee at Chakmakul refugee camp, said he had fled Myanmar to save his life and would not risk it by living on Bhasan Char.

“I would rather die right here.” Describing the island, Hasina said at a news conference here that “from a natural point of view it is very nice”, and said although the initial plan was to put 100,000 people there, it had room for as many as one million.