MOSCOW (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 29th January, 2021) Bangladesh has transferred 1,778 Rohingya refugees, an ethnic minority in Myanmar, to the remote island of Bhasan Char in the country's south as part of the Rohingya resettlement project, the Anadolu news agency reported on Friday, citing the project's director, Commodore Abdullah Al Mamun Chowdhury.
In December, over 3,400 Rohingya refugees were relocated to the island, which is prone to natural disasters, posing a high risk to its inhabitants. The Bangladeshi government, however, claims that the living conditions on the island are far better than in overcrowded camps in the southeastern town of Cox's Bazaar, currently hosting 1.1 million stateless Rohingya refugees.
"We are committed to ensuring the secured life of the Rohingya on the island until their peaceful repatriation to their home, Myanmar's Rakhine state," the project's director told the news agency.
Under the Bangladeshi government's plan, as many as 100,000 Rohingya refugees are set to be moved from crowded camps to the 15 square mile island located 37 miles off the coast of the mainland. Rights groups have previously said that relocating Rohingya refugees to the island, away from the observation of humanitarian and protection groups, may amount to arbitrary detention.
According to the UN Refugee Agency, roughly 800,000 Rohingya refugees fled fighting in Myanmar's Rakhine State to Bangladesh from August 2017 to June 2019, amid fierce clashes between government forces and the Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army, an insurgent group that operates in Rakhine State. The Myanmar authorities launched an unprecedented violence campaign against this Muslim minority after militants, allegedly from this minority group, carried out attacks on police posts in Rakhine.
