Rohingya marvel at island facilities but fear floods
SECOND GROUP OF REFUGEES MOVED TO BHASAN CHAR DESPITE OPPOSITION FROM RIGHTS GROUPS
AS A Bangladeshi naval ship anchored off a remote Bay of Bengal island, some of the Rohingya Muslim refugees aboard clapped in anticipation of starting a new life on a piece of land that did not even exist two decades ago.
Carrying poultry and sacks of belongings, they are part of a second group of about 1,800 Rohingya that Bangladesh moved on December 29 from cramped refugee camps on the mainland to the low-lying island despite opposition from rights groups.
“Welcome to Bhasan Char,” read a banner as the refugees walked off the jetty on the island, nearly as big as Manhattan. Navy trucks and tractor trailers took them to multiple rows of concrete houses with their pinkish-red painted tin roofs.
A Reuters photographer was among a team of journalists given rare access to the island that is about three hours from the nearest port in Chittagong and is fully exposed to nature’s vagaries in a country with a tragic history of deadly storms.
Bangladesh said that it has spent more than $350 million (£258m) of its own money to ready housing and other infrastructure to voluntarily move some 100,000 Rohingya to the island in an effort to ease overcrowding in camps near the Myanmar border, even though rights groups said many were being coerced or paid to move. The government denies the charges.
It insisted that the 1,800 refugees, who have been in camps since fleeing a Myanmar military clampdown, want to start new lives on Bhashan Char, where 1,600 others arrived earlier last month. “Mashallah! Wonderful place,” one man, a father of six, exclaimed using an Arabic expression for appreciation at the arrangements at Bhasan Char.
“We are so happy with the accommodation. The children are so excited to see the playground,” he said,
abut added: don’t kill us.”
The government said earlier last month that the housing was built on concrete foundation which could withstand natural disasters, noting it withstood cyclone Amphan in May which killed more than 100 people in Bangladesh and India.
The government has built a twometre high embankment for 12 km to protect the island, where sheep grazed on its greenish-grey grass as the new arrivals were screened for coronavirus by health workers in white overalls.
Housing blocks have been set up for the new arrivals on the island that Bangladesh foreign minister AK Abdul Momen has called a “beautiful resort”.
More than 700,000 Rohingya joined 300,000 already in camps in Bangladesh in 2017 after a deadly purge on their villages in Myanmar that the United Nations has said could be genocide.
With Bangladesh now struggling to find a long-term solution to the Rohingya exodus, government refugee officials said there were better living facilities and better security
“We
just
pray
floods
for the Rohingya in Bhashan Char. “They are eager to go to Bhashan Char because they have heard from their relatives, those who have gone to Bhashan Char, that it is an excellent place,” Momen said.
Grandmother Morium Khatun, 55, said she was making the change to escape drug-related crime in the camps that has seen dozens killed in recent years. “I am looking for peace of mind. The refugee camp is not a place for that,” she said.
However, an international rights worker who interviewed some Rohingya said they had no choice about the move.
“The homes of some of the refugees were padlocked by volunteers working for the Bangladesh camp authorities to force them to agree to the relocation,” the worker said, speaking on condition of anonymity.
“They (Rohingya) are told that if they don’t go, then their homes will remain padlocked.”
After the first transfer on December 4, several Rohingya said they were beaten and intimidated to agree to move.
The UN said it has not been volved in the process.
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