Fifth phase of relocation: 2,257 Rohingyas leave for Bhashan Char

Dhaka Tribune

Anwar Hussain, Chittagong
March 3rd, 2021

File photo: Bangladesh Navy personnel help a disabled Rohingya refugee child to get off from a navy vessel as they arrive at the Bhashan Char island in Noakhali, Bangladesh, December 29, 2020 Reuters

So far, around 14,000 Rohingyas have been relocated to the island in four phases

Some 2,257 Rohingyas left for Bhashan Char in Noakhali in the fifth phase of the relocation process on Wednesday morning.

Six ships of the Bangladesh Navy carrying the forcibly displaced Myanmar nationals left the Chittagong Boat Club jetty, situated in the port city's Patenga area, around 10:30am, said National Security Intelligence (NSI) officials.

The Rohingyas, who have volunteered to be relocated to Bhashan Char developed by the Bangladesh Navy at a cost of Tk3,100 crore, were brought to Chittagong from Ukhiya in Cox's Bazar on Tuesday.

At night, they stayed at a transit camp set up on the premises of BAF Shaheen College in Patenga.

Buoyed by the success of the previous relocation, the government is continuing its effort to move some 100,000 Rohingyas to Bhashan Char in phases to provide them with a better living place.

ED: So far so good

Dhaka Tribune 

 Tribune Editorial
January 19th, 2021

The amenities at Bhashar Char have been carefully thought-out

From the very moment that the Bashan Char project was announced, the plan to relocate Rohingya refugees to these improved accommodations has been met with strong criticism from the international community. But now, after two batches of refugees have been relocated, and a third batch of 2,000 people all set to be moved by the end of this month, it would seem that the critics were mistaken, and that Bhashan Char is indeed a great improvement over the Cox’s Bazar camps. As a senior Navy officer involved in the relocation commented: “So far so good.”

1 Month of Rohingya Relocation: Finding happiness on the island of hope

 The Daily Star

Mohammad Al-Masum Molla
January 04, 2021 

Noor Sadek and his staff were busy preparing and selling paratha and dal in his makeshift shop at Bhasan Char. Outside the shop, people were standing in line to buy breakfast.

"I sell only breakfast every day. Sales are around Tk 2,000-3,000," said a smiling Sadek, a Rohingya refugee.

He had the same business in Kutupalong camp in Cox's Bazar. He set up this shop two days after arriving on the island on December 4.

The main difference he finds here is that the area is not congested and no one demands extortion money. "I am happy with this. The more people will come to Bhasan Char, the more I will be able to sell," he said.

'Rohingyas being relocated to Bhashan Char voluntarily with transparency'

Dhaka Tribune 

Humayun Kabir Bhuiyan
December 30th, 2020 

A Bangladesh Navy ship carries Rohingya refugees to Bhashan Char island, under Noakhali district, in the Bay of Bengal on Tuesday, December 29, 2020 Mahmud Hossain Opu/Dhaka Tribune

 

Instead of putting undue pressure on Bangladesh, UN and international actors must focus on Myanmar that created the crisis, says Foreign Ministry

The Rohingya refugees are being relocated to Bhashan Char at their will and that the process is being conducted maintaining utmost transparency, Bangladesh government reiterated on Wednesday.

"The Government would like to make it unambiguously clear that the relocation process, which was commenced on 04 December 2020, in line with the GOB’s (Government of Bangladesh) efforts to decongest and de-risk the camps, strictly followed the principle of voluntariness and was conducted with utmost transparency," said a media statement issued by the Foreign Ministry in the evening — a day after the transfer of the second batch of Rohingyas to the island.

Rohingya refugees are being displaced, again

Aljazeera

18 Dec 2020

Rohingya are seen inside a tent as they wait to get on board a ship as they move to Bhasan Char island in Chattogram, Bangladesh, December 4, 2020 [File: Mohammad Ponir Hossain/Reuters]

Bangladesh has relocated more than 1,700 Rohingya refugees from crowded camps in the country’s southeast to Bhasan Char, an island prone to flooding, and it intends to relocate thousands more.

US asks Myanmar to create conditions for Rohingya repatriation, voices concern over relocation

Prothum Alo------ 

Reuters
Washington
Published: 11 December 2020,

 

 

The first batch of Rohingyas has started out for Bhasan Char from the Chattogram in the morning of 4 December 2020Prothom Alo

The United States on Thursday said it was concerned about Bangladesh's relocation of 1,642 Rohingya refugees to Bhasan Char island and plans to carry out further moves, calling on Bangladesh to accept independent assessments of the move.

The United States also backed the United Nations in calling for any such relocations to be "fully voluntary and based on informed consent without pressure or coercion", State Department spokesman Cale Brown said in a statement.

Brown also reiterated Washington's call on Myanmar to create the conditions conducive for Rohingya refugees’ voluntary, safe, and dignified return to their home country.

Bangladesh Rohingya relocation to isolated island criticized by rights groups

DW

03-12.2020

 Bangladesh has transferred hundreds of Rohingya refugees to Bhasan Char, a low-lying island in the Bay of Bengal prone to cyclones and floods. International aid groups complain they weren't involved in the move.

Rohingya board a ship on December 4 to Bhasan Char

On Thursday, hundreds of Rohingya refugees were seen boarding buses in front of refugee camps in Cox's Bazar, a coastal town near the Bangladesh-Myanmar border.

They were heavily guarded by security forces and barred from talking to journalists. Government officials, who were present at the site, have yet to give any official statement. Additional police forces were seen patrolling the area.

The refugees are being taken to Bhasan Char, which is Bengali for "floating island." It formed out of Himalayan silt flowing into the Meghna Estuary in the Bay of Bengal less than 20 years ago. Located 34 kilometers (21 miles) from mainland Bangladesh, Bhasan Char's geography makes it prone to cyclones and floods.

Rohingya relocation: UN reiterates offer to engage

DhakaTribune

Humayun Kabir Bhuiyan

December 2nd, 2020

File photo: Forcibly displaced Rohingya refugees playing football at a refugee camp in Bhashan Char ISPR

“The United Nations has not been involved in preparations for this movement or the identification of refugees and has limited information on the overall relocation exercise,” it said

On the eve of the beginning of the relocation of Rohingyas from Cox’s Bazar to Bhashan Char, the United Nations reiterated its offer to engage with the process subject to technical and protection assessments of the island to be carried out by independent experts.

UN says it has 'limited information' on Rohingya relocation to Bhasan Char

bdnews24.com

News Desk, bdnews24.com
Published: 02 Dec 2020

A 91-feet high lighthouse has also been constructed on the island, which is capable of providing navigational assistance to vessels that are up to 14 nautical miles away.

The United Nations has called on Bangladesh to ensure that the Rohingya people are able to make a 'free and informed decision' about relocating to Bhasan Char as the government prepares to move the first batch of refugees to the island.

In a statement on Wednesday, the UN, however, said it has not been involved in preparations for this movement or the identification of the refugees and has limited information on the overall relocation exercise.

"The United Nations takes this opportunity to highlight its longstanding position that Rohingya refugees must be able to make a free and informed decision about relocating to Bhasan Char based upon relevant, accurate and updated information."

Relocation to Bhashan Char: Rohingyas ‘being coerced’ into getting registered

The Daily Star 

Staff Correspondent
November 22, 2020

Amnesty Int’l says based on allegations from 5 refugee families in Cox’s Bazar

Amnesty International issued a statement yesterday saying that they received allegations from Rohingya refugees about government officials in charge of camps coercing them into registering for relocation.

"According to local media reports, the Bangladeshi government has completed preparations to relocate 300 to 400 Rohingya refugees to the silt island of Bhashan Char this month on a 'voluntary basis'," said the statement.

Govt firm on relocating Rohingyas to Bhashan Char

Dhaka Tribune  

Humayun Kabir Bhuiyan

October 12th, 2020 

File Photo: The photo, collected from project official Atikul Islam’s Facebook page, shows houses built under a project to accommodate Rohingya refugees in Bhashan Char, Noakhali, Bangladesh Collected

5,000 workers working to further develop the island’s infrastructure and a police station will be set up soon, says disaster management secretary

The government is determined to go ahead with the relocation of nearly 100,000 Rohingyas to Bhashan Char Island in order to decongest the cramped Rohingya camps in Cox’s Bazar, senior officials concerned told Dhaka Tribune.

 

Rohingya crisis: Relocation plan meets opposition

Aljazeera

Tanvir Chowdhury

12 Sep 2020

As well as being stateless and homeless, the coronavirus pandemic is worsening the plight of Rohingya.

The Bangladeshi government wants to relocate more than 100,000 Rohingya refugees to a remote island in the Bay of Bengal.

But some are opposing the plan, while UN agencies are questioning whether the new site is suitable.

Al Jazeera’s Tanvir Chowdhury reports. 

Link :https://www.aljazeera.com/videos/2020/09/12/rohingya-crisis-relocation-plan-meets-opposition/

Bangladesh’s troubling Rohingya relocation plan

ASIATIMES

Opinion

By Phelim Kine

In its Cox’s Bazar refugee camps, Bangladesh has generously provided a modicum of safety and dignity to the Rohingya refugee survivors of the Myanmar military campaign of widespread and systematic violence in late 2017.

But the durability of that safety and dignity is now in doubt.

Last week, the Bangladeshi government announced that in November it will begin to relocate up to 100,000 of those more than 740,000 Rohingya refugees to Bhasan Char, a remote island in the Bay of Bengal. The Bangladeshi government’s motive for the planned relocation is to relieve desperate overcrowding in the Cox’s Bazar camps.

But the choice of Bhasan Char has raised serious concerns about the health and safety of Rohingya who relocate there.

Bangladesh to UN: 'Support Rohingya island relocation or leave the country'

DW

In an interview with DW, Bangladesh's Foreign Minister AK Abdul Momen expressed disappointment over "inadequate" international pressure on Myanmar to take back the Rohingya refugees currently camped in Cox's Bazar.

Cox’s Bazar Report: Relocating The Rohingya

The Organisation for world Peace
26 May, 2019
by Henry Whitelaw

The Kutupalong-Balukhali refugee camp in Bangladesh, more widely known by the anglicised name of its nearest town, Cox’s Bazar, is currently the world’s largest refugee camp. It is thought that over 1 million Rohingya Muslims currently live there, having fled persecution in their native state of Rakhine in Myanmar. Alongside all the well-documented sanitary and hygiene challenges faced by all such densely packed temporary settlements, Cox’s Bazar has the added misfortune of facing its own unique environmental problems. A large portion of the camp lies on previously forested land, which has been cut down in order to build dwellings as the camp has grown. This land is also considerably hilly but is lacking in any rock foundations. As Atiq Rahman, the executive director of the Bangladesh Centre for Advanced Studies (BCAS) has said, “In Bangladesh these are not rocky hills, they are soft soil hills.

Refugees International Warns Against Relocating Rohingya to Bhashan Char Island

REFUGEE

INTERNATIONAL

Refugees International | March 28, 2019  

RI STATEMENTS

Refugees International Warns Against Relocating Rohingya to Bhashan Char Island — Refugees International

Refugees International is deeply concerned about plans announced by the government of Bangladesh to begin relocating Rohingya refugees to Bhashan Char, an isolated island more than 30 miles off the coast of Bangladesh. Serious questions about safety and voluntariness of such a relocation remain unanswered.

UN To Fund Rohingya Relocation To Island

INDEPENDENT

By Agency Report
- March 27, 2019 

 

The United Nations is prepared to financially help Bangladesh in relocating Rohingya refugees, the UN resident coordinator’s office in Bangladesh said on Monday after Bangladesh said it could no longer bear the refugee burden on its own.

UN weighs assisting with Rohingya island relocation plan.

Frontier
MYANMAR
Tuesday, March 26, 2019

People get off a boat on Bhashan Char island off the Bangladesh coast in October 2018, as it was being prepared for the relocation of Rohingya refugees. (AFP)

By AFP

DHAKA — The United Nations said Monday it was examining how to assist Bangladesh in relocating thousands of Rohingya refugees to a remote island despite warnings it could trigger fresh humanitarian upheaval.

Dhaka says shifting 100,000 refugees to a muddy silt islet in the Bay of Bengal will take pressure off overcrowded camps along its southern border, where almost a million Rohingya Muslims live in cramped tent cities.

No hurry to relocate Rohingyas to Bhasan Char, says Junior Minister Enamur.

bdnews24.com
26 Mar 2019 10:14 AM BdST

Bangladesh is not in a hurry to relocate Rohingya refugees to a Bay of Bengal island, a minister told Reuters on Monday, after the United Nations sought more details on the government's plan, criticised by some human rights groups.

Bangladesh wants to move 100,000 of the nearly 1 million Rohingya Muslims sheltered in cramped camps in its southeastern district of Cox's Bazar to the remote island, known as Bhasan Char which it has been developing for the past two years.

The United Nations is making plans to help Bangladesh with the move, Reuters reported last week.

Govt unlikely to begin process on April 15

NEWAGE
ROHINGYA RELOCATION TO BHASANCHAR
Shahidul Islam Chowdhury | Published:  Mar 26,2019 |

It is highly unlikely that the government would be able to begin the relocation of Rohingya people living in camps in Teknaf to Bhasanchar, an island under Noakhali district, on April 15, as it would take time to complete preparations including assessing voluntariness of the refugees, a senior member of the national taskforce, or NTF, on Rohingya issues said.