Bangladesh to move Rohingya to island from next month
Dhaka, Bangladesh - Bangladesh will next month start moving 100,000 Rohingya refugees to a remote island, officials said on Tuesday, despite warnings the silty strip is prone to violent weather.
Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina is scheduled on October 3 to officially open newlyconstructed shelters for the displaced Muslims on Bhashan Char, a muddy islet that only emerged from the Bay of Bengal in 2006.
The controversial plan is already behind schedule. Officials previously said they wanted to start moving refugees from overcrowded camps near the border with Myanmar to the island in June, before the monsoon began.
The navy has fast-tracked construction of shelters and evacuation centres for 100,000 refugees and nearly three-quarters of the project is complete, a senior disaster management official said.
“Initially, 50 to 60 Rohingya families will be relocated in the first phase beginning next month,” said the official.
Bangladesh, a low-lying riverine country vulnerable to rising sea levels, is prone to tropical cyclones, especially in the Bay of Bengal between April and November.
Hundreds of thousands have died from natural disasters in the last 50 years, mostly in coastal areas near Bhashan Char.
The island is one hour by boat from the nearest land but violent storms make the journey by sea dangerous or sometimes impossible.
The plan to relocate refugees there was revived after 700,000 Rohingyas, fleeing a violent crackdown in Myanmar in August last year, poured into southeast Bangladesh and overwhelmed existing refugee camps.