{"id":2307,"date":"2021-04-20T06:37:50","date_gmt":"2021-04-20T06:37:50","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/arakanwatch.org\/?p=2307"},"modified":"2021-05-09T06:49:57","modified_gmt":"2021-05-09T06:49:57","slug":"un-urges-bangladesh-to-delay-rohingya-refugee-island-transfers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/arakanwatch.org\/en\/un-urges-bangladesh-to-delay-rohingya-refugee-island-transfers\/","title":{"rendered":"UN Urges Bangladesh to Delay Rohingya Refugee Island Transfers"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The controversial island relocation plan points to the challenges facing the resolution of the refugee crisis in southeastern Bangladesh.<\/p>\n<header id=\"td-story-head\">\n<div id=\"td-meta\">\n<div class=\"td-story-meta__main\">\n<div class=\"td-author\">By\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/thediplomat.com\/authors\/sebastian-strangio\/\">Sebastian Strangio<\/a><\/div>\n<div class=\"td-date\">April 20, 2021<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/header>\n<figure id=\"td-story-image\" class=\"td-media td-media--story\">\n<div class=\"td-img\"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignleft\" title=\"UN Urges Bangladesh to Delay Rohingya Refugee Island Transfers\" src=\"https:\/\/thediplomat.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/04\/sizes\/td-story-s-1\/thediplomat-2021-04-20-2.jpg\" sizes=\"(min-width: 915px) 462px, (min-width: 753px) 300px, (min-width: 672px) 624px, calc(100vw - 48px)\" srcset=\"https:\/\/thediplomat.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/04\/sizes\/td-story-s-1\/thediplomat-2021-04-20-2.jpg 300w, https:\/\/thediplomat.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/04\/sizes\/td-story-s-2\/thediplomat-2021-04-20-2.jpg 600w, https:\/\/thediplomat.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/04\/sizes\/medium\/thediplomat-2021-04-20-2.jpg 462w\" alt=\"UN Urges Bangladesh to Delay Rohingya Refugee Island Transfers\" \/><\/div><figcaption class=\"td-caption\">A view of the Kutupalong extension camp, in Cox\u2019s Bazar, Bangladesh, on July 2, 2018.<\/p>\n<p>Credit:\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.flickr.com\/photos\/10816734@N03\/41405642400\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Flickr\/World Bank Photo Collection<\/a><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<section id=\"td-story-body\" class=\"td-prose td-pwOn ng-scope\">\n<aside class=\"td-box td-ad td-ad-vertical td-right\">\n<header>The United Nations refugee agency is urging Bangladesh to slow down its relocation of Rohingya refugees to an island in the Bay of Bengal until measures to protect residents from storms and flooding are fully in place, BenarNews\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.benarnews.org\/english\/news\/bengali\/bd-un-rohingya-bhashan-04162021142602.html\">reported on Friday<\/a>.<\/header>\n<\/aside>\n<p>Since December, the government has moved a total of 18,304 Rohingya from the crowded refugee camps in Cox\u2019s Bazar district, close to the border with Myanmar, to Bhasan Char, an island lying some 34 kilometers offshore.<\/p>\n<p>According to the report, a team from the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) visited the Bhasan Char in mid-March and acknowledged that the government had made \u201cextensive investments\u201d in infrastructure and safeguards on the flood-prone island, but said further improvements were necessary<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe U.N. team recommends to the government that any future relocations are undertaken in a gradual and phased manner, which would help to ensure that the governance structure, facilities, and services available on Bhashan Char are commensurate to the needs of Rohingya refugees living there,\u201d UNHCR spokesperson Charlie Goodlake\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.benarnews.org\/english\/news\/bengali\/bd-un-rohingya-bhashan-04162021142602.html\">told BenarNews<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>In particular, Goodlake said that the authorities needed to complete the extension of a flood embankment before any more people were relocated to the island, given the cyclones that frequently scythe through the Bay of Bengal. He also called on Dhaka to put in place an emergency management plan for natural disasters and severe weather events, including laying aside stocks of essential supplies.<\/p>\n<p>Bangladesh is home to more than 1 million Rohingya Muslims, many of whom were forced over the border by fierce assaults by Myanmar\u2019s military in 2016 and 2017, acts which U.N. investigators later claimed showed \u201c<a href=\"https:\/\/www.reuters.com\/article\/myanmar-rohingya-un-idUSL8N1VH04R\">genocidal intent<\/a>.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Given the burden that the refugee presence has imposed on Bangladesh, the country\u2019s government is eager to begin sending the refugees back to Myanmar. But several attempts at repatriation have failed because many Rohingya have refused to go, citing the continuing instability inside Myanmar\u2019s Rakhine State and rightly expecting that they would be subject to more violence and discrimination on their return.<\/p>\n<aside id=\"td-box-newsletter\" class=\"td-box td-box-m td-left\">\n<header>\n<h3>This is the context in which the Bhasan Char relocation plan has come about. Since its inception, however, the relocation plan has been controversial. Humanitarian workers claim that the island is vulnerable to cyclones and other extreme weather events, and have\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.reuters.com\/article\/us-bangladesh-rohingya\/rohingya-coerced-into-going-to-remote-island-refugees-and-aid-workers-say-idUSKBN28D0RQ\">alleged that some<\/a>\u00a0of the initial people taken to Bhasan Char had been forced or tricked into doing so, despite government assertions that the relocations were voluntary.<\/h3>\n<\/header>\n<\/aside>\n<aside class=\"td-box td-ad td-right\">\n<header>Bangladesh has denied the claims of forced transfers. It also\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.benarnews.org\/english\/news\/bengali\/bd-un-rohingya-bhashan-04162021142602.html\">asserts that<\/a>\u00a0the risk of natural disasters is no different from in Bangladesh itself, but that the facilities on Bhasan Char are superior to those in the camps of Cox\u2019s Bazar.<\/header>\n<\/aside>\n<p>For all its controversies, the Bhasan Char plan hints at the massive burden still being borne by Bangladesh, and the seemingly intractable nature of the refugee crisis. As Sayeed Ahmed wrote in The Diplomat\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/thediplomat.com\/2021\/04\/long-after-the-world-moved-on-bangladesh-is-still-sheltering-rohingya-refugees\/\">this week<\/a>, Dhaka is\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.thedailystar.net\/frontpage\/cost-supporting-rohingyas-dhaka-now-saddled-12b-year-1804855\">spending $1.2 billion each year<\/a>\u00a0to support the Rohingya refugee populations, and\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.benarnews.org\/english\/news\/bengali\/bd-un-rohingya-bhashan-04162021142602.html\">claims to have spent<\/a>\u00a0$280 million preparing Bhasan Char for its new residents. \u201cWhile the international community is quick to criticize Bangladesh,\u201d he argued, \u201coffers to help are far less frequent.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The situation has been further complicated by the crisis that has erupted since the Myanmar military\u2019s coup in February, which has distracted international attention from the Rohingya crisis and pushed Myanmar into a political crisis that presently shows few signs of abating.<\/p>\n<p>More than a million Rohingya refugees thus find themselves caught between the perpetual limbo of the camps and a homeland controlled by the military whose actions forced them to flee in the first place. The goal of voluntary repatriation, which has been the priority of Bangladesh and many of its foreign partners since the refugee camps started to swell in 2017, looks less likely than at any point in the past five years, making it increasingly likely that alternative arrangements now have to be considered.<\/p>\n<p>credit: <a href=\"https:\/\/thediplomat.com\/2021\/04\/un-urges-bangladesh-to-delay-rohingya-refugee-island-transfers\/\">here<\/a><\/p>\n<\/section>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The controversial island relocation plan points to the challenges facing the resolution of the refugee crisis in southeastern Bangladesh. By\u00a0Sebastian Strangio April 20, 2021 A view of the Kutupalong extension camp, in Cox\u2019s Bazar, Bangladesh, on July 2, 2018. Credit:\u00a0Flickr\/World Bank Photo Collection The United Nations refugee agency is urging Bangladesh to slow down its [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2003,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[8,41,37,3,12],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/arakanwatch.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2307"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/arakanwatch.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/arakanwatch.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arakanwatch.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arakanwatch.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2307"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/arakanwatch.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2307\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2308,"href":"https:\/\/arakanwatch.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2307\/revisions\/2308"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arakanwatch.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2003"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/arakanwatch.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2307"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arakanwatch.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2307"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arakanwatch.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2307"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}