Hundreds of Rohingya refugees in Bangladesh are being relocated to a controversial island facility in the Bay of Bengal today amid fears that some could be coerced to move there and held indefinitely.
A ship carrying 1642 refugees is traveling to Bhasan Char, an island about 40 kilometers (24 miles) off the coast near the city of Chittagong, according to Shahriar Alam, Bangladesh Minister of State for Foreign Affairs.
The Bangladeshi government has spent years constructing a network of shelters on the island to accommodate up to 100,000 people currently living in sprawling refugee camps in Cox’s Bazar, near the Myanmar border.
But human rights groups and the refugees themselves have long expressed concerns over the safety of the uninhabited, low-lying island, as it often becomes partially submerged during monsoon season and is vulnerable to cyclones.
Human Rights Watch has described conditions on the island as “poor” with Rohingya likely facing a lack of adequate medical care. The group has also expressed concerns that refugees there could be denied freedom of movement, sustainable livelihoods or education. It is also unclear what role — if any — humanitarian agencies will be allowed to have there.
In a statement, Refugees International said the relocation was “short-sighted and inhumane,” and should be stopped.
“Without appropriate assessments and adequate information for refugees about conditions on the island, the move is nothing short of a dangerous mass detention of the Rohingya people in violation of international human rights obligations,” said Daniel Sullivan, the group’s senior human rights advocate.
The Bangladeshi foreign minister said he didn’t understand why aid agencies were against the move, and described reports of coercion as “absolutely baseless.”
“I simply don’t get it,” Alam said. “Why they are opposing a better life for them when they terribly failed in doing their job?”
The government has been building facilities on Bhasan Char for several years to ease pressure on the overcrowded camps at Cox’s Bazar, which are home to about 1 million Rohingya refugees.
Many of the refugees fled from Myanmar to Bangladesh to escape a violent military crackdown in 2017, which led the International Court of Justice in The Hague to order Myanmar to protect the Rohingya population from acts of genocide. Myanmar denies the genocide accusations, and maintains the “clearance operations” by the military were legitimate counter-terrorism measures.
The United Nations said in a statement that it was not involved in preparations and has been given “limited information” on the relocations. It has also not been given access to the island to carry out safety and technical assessments.
“Rohingya refugees must be able to make a free and informed decision about relocating to Bhasan Char based upon relevant, accurate and updated information,” the statement said.
“Any relocations to Bhasan Char should be preceded by comprehensive technical protection assessments. These independent United Nations assessments would review the safety, feasibility and sustainability of Bhasan Char as a place for refugees to live, as well as the framework for protection and the assistance and services they would be able to access on the island.”
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