Fears of forced removals as Bangladesh moves hundreds of Rohingya refugees to remote island

KRDO

By CNN
Published December 8, 2020

 

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.

Fears of forced removals as Bangladesh moves hundreds of Rohingya refugees to remote island

CNN

Helen Regan and Rebecca Wright, 
Updated -December 5, 2020

Hundreds of Rohingya refugees being relocated to island 02:56

(CNN)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.

Facilities on Bhasan Char island can accommodate up to 100,000 refugees. Credit: Salman Saeed

Rohingya refugees ferried to floating Bangladesh island

EAST BAY TIMES

By The Associated Press |
PUBLISHED: December 4, 2020
By Julhas Alam | Associated Press

About 700,000 Rohingya fled Myanmar in August 2017

A health worker checks the temperature of Rohingya Muslims arriving at Bhasan Char, or floating island, in the Bay of Bengal, Bangladesh. Authorities in Bangladesh have begun relocating thousands of Rohingya refugees to an isolated island despite calls by human rights groups for a halt to the process. (AP Photo/Saleh Noman)

DHAKA, Bangladesh — Authorities in Bangladesh on Friday sent the first group of more than 1,500 Rohingya refugees to an isolated island despite calls by human rights groups for a halt to the process.

The 1,642 refugees boarded seven Bangladeshi naval vessels in the port of Chittagong for the trip to Bhashan Char, according to an official who could not be named in accordance with local practice.

After about a three-hour trip they arrived at the island, which was once regularly submerged by monsoon rains but now has flood protection embankments, houses, hospitals and mosques built at a cost of more than $112 million by the Bangladesh navy.

Located 21 miles from the mainland, the island surfaced only 20 years ago and was never inhabited.

Rohingya Refugees in Bangladesh Being Moved to Isolated Island in “Dangerous Mass Detention”

DEMOCRACY

NOW!

HEADLINE

DEC 04, 2020

In Bangladesh, human rights advocates are condemning the relocation of thousands of Rohingya refugees to an isolated island — hours away from the mainland. Police on Thursday escorted refugees, who were put on buses for the long trek from Cox’s Bazar to a port town, where they’ll then be put on boats en route to Bhasan Char island, which is prone to flooding, frequent cyclones, and only emerged from the ocean two decades ago. The island has never been inhabited. Two aid workers told Reuters refugees were pressured into the move by government officials, who threatened them or offered them cash in exchange. Human Rights Watch called the refugees’ relocation “nothing short of a dangerous mass detention of the Rohingya people in violation of international human rights obligations.”

Link : Here

Controversial plan to relocate Rohingya refugees to an allegedly dangerous island begins

 

euronews (in English)
4 Dec 2020

Link : Here

New Hope for Rohingya Refugees with Disabilities in Cox’s Bazar

IOM
Source IOM
3 Dec 2020

Anuara was born with a congenital limb defect but goes to great lengths to overcome her daily struggles. Photo: IOM/Monica Chiriac

 

Twenty-six-year-old Anuara was born with a congenital limb defect. However, this does not stop the single mother from doing her household chores, getting around the camp and looking after her two-year-old. “I have been using my hands to walk my entire life,” Anaura explains. Yet, since the onset of COVID-19, she is increasingly relying on her neighbours for errands.

Anaura is one of the 59 Rohingya refugees with disabilities who will receive assistive devices in the coming weeks. “I hope the wheelchair will be the right height for me, so I can get into the seat by myself,” she says. Most of the people with disabilities living in the camps have been disabled their entire lives, but have never owned an assistive device to facilitate their daily tasks.

First Batch of Rohingyas set to move to Bangladesh island

newsnext
By our correspondent in Dhaka
by Newsnext Bangladesh
November 28, 2020
in Migration

The first batch of upto 3,000 displaced Rohyingyas out of 1.1 million in camps are set to move to an island in the Bay of Bengal in south-eastern Bangladesh, local officials said on Saturday.

Officials on Cox’s Bazar tourist town said upto 3,000 Rohingyas will be shifted within a couple of days to Bhashanchar Islan in the Bay of Bengal and close to Noakhali district.

Owaisi challenges BJP to show names of 100 Rohingya refugees in voters

Chronicle

DECCAN CHRONICLE. | ATHER MOIN
Published Nov 23, 2020,

A BJP leader had claimed that 40,000 Rohingyas had succeeded in getting listed as voters

Owaisi said that his opponents targeted him and his party all the time “thinking we are soft targets". 

 

Hyderabad: AIMIM president Asaduddin Owaisi on Monday challenged the BJP to show the names of 100 Rohingya refugees on the voters’ list, after a BJP leader had claimed that 40,000 Rohingya had succeeded in getting listed as voters. 

Speaking at election meetings in Mallepally and Red Hills on Sunday night, Owaisi asked that if Rohingya were present in the city in that large numbers, why were Union home minister Amit Shah, the home ministry and the Intelligence Bureau quiet. “What are they doing? Exile them. What is the connection with us,” Owaisi asked.

Joint Multi-Sector Needs Assessment (J-MSNA): Bangladesh Rohingya Refugees - July - August 2020

ISCG
12 Nov 2020

Link : Here

Korea gives $1 million to prevent gender-based violence in Cox’s Bazar

The Daily Star

Star Online Report
November 10, 2020 

Rohingya camps in Cox’s Bazar. Photo: Star/ Anisur Rahman

Korea has provided $1 million to Unicef Bangladesh this year for activities to help prevent gender-based violence particularly in Cox's Bazar.

This assistance will help protect women, adolescents, and girls in the Rohingya refugee camp and the host community from gender-based violence and its consequences, especially amid the increasing gender-based violence cases in the prolonged Covid-19 pandemic, Korean embassy in Dhaka said in a statement today.

Rohingya Refugee Response - Bangladesh Factsheet - Public Health (31 August 2020)

News and Press Release
UNHCR
9 Nov 2020

 

 

UK Pledges to Support 860,000 Rohingya Refugees Amid Controversial Policies at Home

Global Citizen 

By James Hitchings-Hales 

Nov. 3, 2020 

While UK aid is doing tremendous good abroad, refugee policies at home need work.

In recent months, there have been UK government proposals to build a floating wall in the English Channel to keep out migrant dinghies, install water cannons that create waves to push away refugee boats, and create offshore detention camps on islands thousands of miles away.

The UK has hardly thrown its arms open to refugees in 2020. Indeed, asylum seekers are perhaps more likely to be met with war ships than welcome banners. It’s led to Global Citizen launching a campaign urging people to write to their MP, asking them to offer safe passage.

EU mobilizes international donors to support Rohingya refugees and countries in the region

europorter

EU Reporter Correspondent

October 27, 2020

Last week the European Union, along with the United States, the United Kingdom and the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees co-hosted the International Donors' Conference in solidarity with Rohingya refugees and countries in the region.

The EU mobilized a total of €96 million for Rohingya refugees in 2020 for humanitarian, development co-operation as well as conflict prevention support.

Representing the EU at the conference, Crisis Management Commissioner Janez Lenarčič said: “Today the international community came together to show its support and deliver further assistance to hundreds of thousands of Rohingya refugees and the communities hosting them. We must do all we can so the Rohingya crisis does not become a forgotten tragedy. At this difficult time, the EU continues to stand by the most vulnerable with this emergency humanitarian support.”

Australian Beauty Queen Fights to Raise Awareness for Rohingya Refugees

PRWIRE  

Release from zanthii communications
2020/10/07

Australia's first Rohingya beauty queen, Pan Sandar Myint is advocating for hundreds of Rohingya refugees, who have arrived in Indonesia after six months at sea.

A wooden boat carrying 297 Rohingya refugees, including 14 children, was spotted several miles off the coast of Lhokseumawe city on Sumatra's northern coast by local fishermen in early September.

PH is willing to accept refugees, Duterte tells UN General Assembly

INQIRER.NET

Darryl John Esguerra
Reporter / @DJEsguerraINQ
INQUIRER.net
September 23, 2020

MANILA, Philippines — In his first-ever speech before the United Nations General Assembly, President Rodrigo Duterte reiterated on Wednesday the Philippines’ willingness to accept refugees, including the Rohingyas from Myanmar.

 
Duterte cited the Philippines’ history of opening its doors to the refugees — White Russians following the 1917 Revolution, European Jews during the Second World War, Vietnamese during the Vietnam War in the late 1960s, and Iranians displaced by the 1979 revolution.

Bangladesh says will not take Rohingya refugees detained in Malaysia

malaymail
Wednesday, 10 Jun 2020

Malaysia on Monday detained 269 Rohingya refugees and found a dead body on a damaged boat off the resort island of Langkawi. — Reuters pic

DHAKA, June 10 — Bangladesh said Tuesday it would refuse to take back 269 Rohingya refugees detained by the Malaysian coastguard while they were adrift on a damaged boat.

“Bangladesh will not take them. Bangladesh is neither obligated nor in a position to take any more Rohingya,” Foreign Minister AK Abdul Momen told Anadolu Agency.

Malaysia on Monday detained 269 Rohingya refugees and found a dead body on a damaged boat off the resort island of Langkawi.