Bangladesh ships 1,640 Rohingya to controversial island

CHITTAGONG ( AFP) – Bangladeshi authorities set more than 1,640 Rohingya refugees on the final leg of their journey to an allegedly dangerous island yesterday, in the first phase of a controversial planned relocation of 100,000 people.

Almost a million Rohingya – most of whom fled a military offensive in neighboring Myanmar in 2017 – live in squalid camps in south-eastern Bangladesh. Any return to Myanmar appears unlikely for now.

Dhaka eventually wants to move 100,000 of the refugees to Bhashan Char, a low-lying silt island that critics say is prone to flooding and in the path of cyclones that frequently wreak havoc in the region.

Rights groups have alleged that many of those sent in the first wave yesterday were coerced into going.

This was borne out by some family members that AFP spoke to at camps in the Cox’s Bazar district on Thursday. They had come to say goodbye to their relatives, who were being bussed to the port of Chittagong ahead of the boat journey.

“They beat my son mercilessly and even smashed his teeth so that he agreed to go to the island,” said Sufia Khatun, 60, who came to see off her son and five other relatives.

But Bangladesh’s Foreign Minister AK Abdul Momen called the rights groups’ claims “a damn lie,” and said the facilities on the island were “much better” than in the camps.

Bangladesh has spent some $400 million from its own coffers building shelters and a nine-foot flood embankment around the facilities.