Saturday, 26 October 2019,
Press Release: Fortify Rights
Bangladesh: Halt Plans to Relocate Rohingya Refugees to Isolated Island
Testimonies indicate relocations slated for next month would be involuntary
(BANGKOK, October 25, 2019)—The Government of Bangladesh should immediately halt plans to relocate Rohingya refugees from camps in Cox’s Bazar to Bhasan Char, an isolated and flood-prone island in the Bay of Bengal, Fortify Rights said today. On October 20, Bangladeshi officials announced plans to begin relocating refugees in early November.
Fortify Rights interviewed 14 Rohingya from three different refugee camps in Bangladesh, including Rohingya identified on lists of people slated for imminent relocation to Bhasan Char. None of those on the lists for relocation interviewed by Fortify Rights had been consulted about the plan and all opposed it.
Fortify Rights interviewed 14 Rohingya from three different refugee camps in Bangladesh, including Rohingya identified on lists of people slated for imminent relocation to Bhasan Char. None of those on the lists for relocation interviewed by Fortify Rights had been consulted about the plan and all opposed it.
“The island is not a sustainable solution for refugees and no one knows that better than the Rohingya themselves,” said Matthew Smith, Chief Executive Officer at Fortify Rights. “Threats of forced relocation cause unnecessary harm to refugee families already struggling to survive. Bangladesh authorities should engage in meaningful consultations with Rohingya and identify options to ensure rights and protection.”
On October 20, the Refugee Relief and Repatriation Commissioner (RRRC) Mahbub Alam Talukder told Reuters that officials in the camps are “compiling the lists of the refugees who are willing to move [to Bhasan Char].”
The Disaster Management and Relief Minister Dr. Md. Enamur Rahman, who oversees the RRRC, confirmed support for the plan, telling media outlets on October 21, “If everything goes as planned, by the first week of November we will start relocating the first batch of the 350 families.”
Last week, Camp-in-Charge (CiC) officials, operating under the authority of the RRRC to oversee the administration of the Rohingya refugee camps in Cox’s Bazar District, called on unelected Rohingya camp leaders, known as Majhi, to identify Rohingya refugee families to participate in the relocation process.
Explaining the process, a Rohingya aid worker in the refugee camps told Fortify Rights, “The Majhi are being pressured to make the list for the CiC . . . It’s not a voluntary process from what we see here.”
The Disaster Management and Relief Minister Dr. Md. Enamur Rahman, who oversees the RRRC, confirmed support for the plan, telling media outlets on October 21, “If everything goes as planned, by the first week of November we will start relocating the first batch of the 350 families.”
Last week, Camp-in-Charge (CiC) officials, operating under the authority of the RRRC to oversee the administration of the Rohingya refugee camps in Cox’s Bazar District, called on unelected Rohingya camp leaders, known as Majhi, to identify Rohingya refugee families to participate in the relocation process.
Explaining the process, a Rohingya aid worker in the refugee camps told Fortify Rights, “The Majhi are being pressured to make the list for the CiC . . . It’s not a voluntary process from what we see here.”
Fortify Rights obtained a copy of a list prepared by the CiC and Majhis, which identified more than 70 Rohingya families to be relocated to Bhasan Char. A 25-year-old Rohingya woman on the list told Fortify Rights: “If the Bangladesh government forces me to go to the island, I will commit suicide by drinking poison here in the camp. I will not go there . . . No one told me I was on the list."
Fortify Rights interviewed 14 Rohingya from three different camps, including four women, two Majhis, and a Rohingya aid worker, about the government’s plans to relocate Rohingya refugees to Bhasan Char and the recent exercise in camps to identify Rohingya families to relocate. None of the refugees interviewed who were named on the list had been consulted about the process or agreed to be included on the list, and none were willing to move to the island.
Fortify Rights interviewed 14 Rohingya from three different camps, including four women, two Majhis, and a Rohingya aid worker, about the government’s plans to relocate Rohingya refugees to Bhasan Char and the recent exercise in camps to identify Rohingya families to relocate. None of the refugees interviewed who were named on the list had been consulted about the process or agreed to be included on the list, and none were willing to move to the island.
“I think it is our Majhi who
put me on the list,” a 50-year-old Rohingya man told
Fortify Rights. He continued:
I feel very bad to hear
that I am listed for [relocation to] the island. It was on
Friday [October 18] when I heard for the first time that I
was listed. I feel sad. I have trouble eating now, and I am
fearful . . . [Majhis] are telling people in camps to
move to the Bhasan Char island . . . I never want to move to
the island.
Upon learning that his family was listed for
relocation to Bashan Char, another Rohingya man originally
from Maungdaw Township in Myanmar’s Rakhine State told
Fortify Rights: “I wanted to cry loudly. One of the
Majhis came to us and checked our ID cards, and there
my ID number matched with the name listed. He took us aside
and told us we must to go the island.”
A
35-year-old Rohingya woman originally from Rathedaung
Township in Myanmar told Fortify Rights that a Majhi
informed her that she was on the list for relocation to
Bhasan Char island. She said:
[The Majhi] told me
that I am listed for [relocation to] Bhasan Char island,
that I need to go there. Hearing him, I was very upset. We
are afraid of living near the water. People say that it
takes four hours by boat to reach the island . . . I will
never go to the island. I do not have the will to go there.
Even if they force me to go there, I will not go.
“In
our camp, no family wants to move to the island,” a
32-year-old Majhi told Fortify Rights. “People are
fearful of living on the island. They say it is a floating
island.”
Located 21 miles from the mainland of
Bangladesh, Bhasan Char emerged from the sea approximately
20 years ago and has remained uninhabited as a barren,
flood-prone silt island until now.
In 2015, the Bangladesh
government began developing Bhasan Char for the purposes of
relocating more than 100,000 Rohingya refugees from the
overcrowded camps in Cox’s Bazar District.
In a media
interview with Deutsche Welle on October 21,
Bangladesh's Foreign Minister A. K. Abdul Momen described
the island as “a well-built, beautiful island . . . If
[the Rohingya] go there, they will have some economic
activity . . . We have built houses . . . We have built
cyclone shelters.”
According to Reuters,
British engineering and environmental hydraulics company HR
Wallingford and Chinese firm Sinohydro supported the design
and construction of infrastructure on the island. A
Bangladesh government promotional video about preparations
on the island depicts the development of multi-family,
concrete barracks to accommodate between 60 to 90 people per
housing structure on the island.
Following a visit to
the island in January 2019, U.N. Special Rapporteur on the
situation of human rights in Myanmar Yanghee Lee said,
“There are a number of things that remain unknown to me
even following my visit, chief among them being whether the
island is truly habitable . . . Ill-planned relocation, and
relocations without the consent of the refugees concerned,
have the potential to create a new crisis.”
A 2018
internal briefing paper by the U.N. High Commissioner for
Refugees—the U.N. agency mandated to protect
refugees—similarly highlighted the need to prevent forced
relocations to Bhasan Char, stating:
Refugees must be
able to make a free and informed decision to relocate to
Bhashan Char [sic], meaning they should not be forced to
choose between only relocation to Bhashan Char [sic] or
repatriation to Myanmar, as this would render any such
relocation or repatriation involuntary and, in the case of
repatriation, violate the principle of
non-refoulement.
While the government of Bangladesh is
not a party to the 1951 Refugee Convention or its 1967
Protocol, all states are obligated to uphold the principle
of non-refoulement under customary international law.
The principle of non-refoulement prohibits states
from returning any person on its territory or under its
jurisdiction to a country where they may face
persecution.
Article 3 of the U.N. Convention against
Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or
Punishment, to which Bangladesh is a state party, further
states: “No State Party shall expel, return
(‘refoule’) or extradite a person to another State where
there are substantial grounds for believing that he [or she]
would be in danger of being subjected to torture.”
In
July 2018, Fortify Rights published a 160-page report, “They Gave Them
Long Swords,” detailing how Myanmar authorities made
“extensive and systematic preparations” for attacks
against Rohingya civilians in 2017 that constituted genocide
and crimes against humanity. Fortify Rights named 22
military and police officials who should be investigated and
possibly prosecuted for genocide and crimes against
humanity. In September 2019, Fortify Rights published a 102-page report, “Tools of
Genocide,” revealing how Myanmar authorities forced
and coerced Rohingya to accept National Verification Cards
(NVCs), which effectively identify Rohingya as
“foreigners” and strip them of access to full
citizenship rights.
Bangladesh should protect Rohingya
refugees from forced relocations or forced returns to
Myanmar and continue to support international efforts to
hold perpetrators in Myanmar accountable for atrocity crimes
against Rohingya, Fortify Rights said.
“Bangladesh
and donor governments should prioritize rights-respecting
mid-term solutions for Rohingya refugees, including access
to formal education and freedom of movement,” said
Matthew Smith. “Dhaka should also continue to push for
justice for survivors of atrocities.”
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