FRANCH 24
Four Bangladesh navy ships on Tuesday took the second and biggest group
of Rohingya Muslims yet from crowded refugee camps to an uncertain
future on a bleak island three hours from the mainland.
The government 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 this month.
But rights activists expressed new doubts about the transfers. They said some Rohingya had their shanty homes in the camps on the Myanmar border padlocked so they had no choice.
The Bangladesh government
eventually wants to rehouse 100,000 of the camps' approximately one
million Rohingya on the island, which takes the full force of cyclones
that roar across the Bay of Bengal each year.
The Rohingya
carried bags of belongings, toys and chickens, and took selfies with
each other as they sat on wooden benches during the three hour trip from
Chittagong to Bhashan Char.
Housing blocks have
been set up for the new arrivals on the island that foreign minister
A.K. 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 for the Rohingya in Bhashan Char.
"They
are very 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 told AFP.
'Peace of mind'
Some Rohingya in the latest group said they were going willingly.
"The camp is a difficult and overcrowded place to live and move around," Shafi Alam told AFP on the navy ship.
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.
But 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 told AFP, speaking on condition of anonymity.
"They are told that if they don't go, their homes will remain padlocked."
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"Allegations
from within the community about cash incentives being offered to
Rohingya families to relocate to Bhashan Char as well as use of
intimidation tactics are making the relocation process questionable,"
said Amnesty International's South Asia campaigner Saad Hammadi.
A
Rohingya journalist who took photos of refugees boarding buses for the
relocation was detained on Monday, a local rights activist said. Police
told AFP they were not aware of an arrest.
After the first transfer on December 4, several Rohingya told AFP that they were beaten and intimidated to agree to move.
The UN said it has not been involved in the process.
(AFP)
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