HRW asks Bangladesh to drop Rohingya relocation plan

The Bangladesh government should immediately drop its plan to transfer Rohingya refugees to an “uninhabited, undeveloped” coastal island, Human Rights Watch has said in what is clearly a sharp reaction to the government’s intended move.

Relocating the refugees from the Cox’s Bazar area to Thengar Char island would deprive them of their rights to freedom of movement, livelihood, food and education, in violation of Bangladesh’s obligations under international human rights law, the New York-based rights group said in a statement posted on its website.

Between 300,000 and 500,000 Rohingya Muslim refugees, most of them unregistered by the authorities, are in Bangladesh after fleeing persecution in Myanmar dating back to the 1990s.

Since October 2016, nearly 69,000 Rohingya from Rakhine State have entered Bangladesh to escape attacks by Burmese security forces, including unlawful killings, sexual violence and wholesale destruction of villages.

“The Bangladesh government is making the ridiculous claim that relocating Rohingya refugees to an island with absolutely no facilities that is deluged at high tide and submerged during the monsoon season will improve their living conditions,” said Brad Adams, Asia director.

“This proposal is both cruel and unworkable and should be abandoned.”

The plan to move long-term refugees to Thengar Char was first suggested in 2015, but was shelved after widespread condemnation.

The statement quoted journalists who have visited Thengar Char island, which emerged from river silt deposited in the Bay of Bengal just a decade ago, as describing “it as empty and featureless, subject to cyclones and flooding”.

“During the monsoon season, the island is submerged; anyone living on the island will have to be evacuated, and any infrastructure would be damaged,” according to the statement.

Foreign Minister AH Mahmood Ali recently briefed Dhaka-based diplomats about the government’s plan to relocate Rohingyas to the island once it is ready for living.

He particularly sought their support in the relocation plan “by providing assistance in developing the island and in transporting them to the new place of their residence”.

The foreign minister had said such a huge population in the Cox’s Bazar district gave rise to “formidable challenges” for the authorities to manage humanitarian assistances for them.

They also created “a number of adverse effects on the overall socio-economic, political, demographic, environmental, and humanitarian and security situation of Cox’s Bazar and adjacent districts and also negatively affecting the eco-tourism prospects”.

Citing the "vulnerable" nature of this population, the foreign minister added that “networks have emerged in this area for the purpose of human trafficking and smuggling of narcotic drugs”.

He also explained that arranging shelters for the new arrivals had become “a new challenge” for the authorities since the accommodation arrangements in the Cox’s Bazar district were "already over-stretched".

The foreign minister argued that in order “to ensure humanitarian assistance” for Rohingyas, the government has decided to relocate them to Thengar Char.

He also said the government planned “to build necessary infrastructure, including shelter, schools, hospitals or health centers, mosques, roads to make the place habitable”. He noted that the relocation would take place “only after the development activities are completed”.

He also told the diplomats that he would take them to visit the site once the infrastructure was in place.