Refugee Relocation: Diplomats to visit Bhasan Char today

Ambassadors and high commissioners of nine diplomatic missions in Bangladesh are going to Bhasan Char today to see the facilities offered for Rohingyas at first hand.

Nine envoys each from the missions of Australia, Canada, Turkey, the European Union, France, Germany, the Netherlands, the UK and the US, have been invited to join the government-led visit to Bhasan Char in Noakhali's Hatiya.

This visit comes after a UN team visited the island from 17-20 March.

Covid-19 protocols will be followed in accordance with the regulations and guidelines of the government of Bangladesh, said a joint media release Thursday.

Sources said the envoys may go to the island by helicopter and will return the same day.

The diplomats will meet relocated Rohingyas, people from the authorities, and others living and working there.

After visiting the island, the UN team said The United Nations is grateful to the government of Bangladesh for its facilitation of the visit and looks forward to continuing the dialogue.

The development comes following an impasse of more than a year between the government and the UN regarding the global body's technical assessment of the housing facility.

The government has already relocated some 15,000 Rohingyas to Bhasan Char from Cox's Bazar in phases since December last year. It is in the process of relocating more in the coming days.

Bangladesh Navy implemented the Tk 3,100 crore housing project after some 7,50,000 Rohingyas had fled a military crackdown in Myanmar's Rakhine state in 2017 and took shelter in camps in Teknaf and Ukhia.

Apart from the risk of landslides in the hilly terrain, the government cited issues such as drug peddling, human trafficking, gender-based violence, conflicts between factions of the refugee communities in Cox's Bazar, and environmental degradation as major reasons for the relocation.

The UN had raised concerns over risks of tidal surge and cyclone at the remote island, but the government said with 120 brick-built cluster villages and 120 cyclone shelters, flood protection embankments, facilities for education, farming and fishing, hospitals and playgrounds, the char is a much better living place than the Cox's Bazar camps.

The UN said it wanted to send one of its technical teams to the island to assess the housing facilities. Asked by the government, it even submitted the terms of reference for the visit in December 2019. The move got stalled after that.

Project officials said separate buildings for the UN and other international aid agencies have also been constructed on Bhasan Char.

After relocation of the first batch of Rohingyas in December last year, some 44 NGOs volunteered to go there and started providing humanitarian assistance to the refugees. There were concerns over how funds needed for 100,000 refugees would be managed after their relocation.