Bangladesh will move 2,000-3,000 more Rohingya Muslim refugees to a remote island in the Bay of Bengal this week, a navy officer said on Wednesday, despite complaints by rights groups concerned about the site’s vulnerability to storms and flooding.
Bangladesh has relocated about 3,500 of the refugees from neighboring Myanmar to Bhasan Char island since early December from border camps where a million live in ramshackle huts perched on razed hillsides.
Bhasan Char emerged from the sea only two decades ago and is several hours by boat from the nearest port at Chittagong. The Rohingya, a minority group who fled violence in Buddhist-majority Myanmar, are not allowed to move off the island without government permission.
“Most probably, they will be taken to Chittagong tomorrow and the next day, they will be sent to Bhasan Char from there,” Navy Commodore Abdullah Al Mamun Chowdhury told Reuters.
Bangladesh justifies the move to the island saying overcrowding in the camps in Cox’s Bazar is leading to crimes.
It also dismisses concerns of floods, citing the construction of a 2-metre (6.5 feet) embankment for 12 km (7.5 miles) to protect the island along with housing for 100,000 people, as well as facilities such as cyclone centres and hospitals.
Its actions, nevertheless, have attracted criticism from relief agencies that have not been consulted on the transfers.
The government says the relocation is voluntary but some refugees from the first group that went there in early December have spoken of being coerced.
