Bangladeshi authorities have decided to relocate thousands of Myanmar refugees to a thinly populated island in the Bay of Bengal to avoid adverse socioeconomic impacts in the mainland.
A number of top government policy planners told The Hindu that the Rohingya refugees, including those who moved into the country from Myanmar in the recent months, would be relocated from Cox’s Bazar district to Thengar Char, an island in the Bay of Bengal. Thengar Char is about 30,000 hectares in area and more than 37 miles from the mainland.
Living in different camps
Rohingyas are currently living in different camps in Cox’s Bazar including Nayapara, Leda and Kutupalang — apart from other parts of the country.
Officially disclosing the plan for the first time, Bangladeshi Foreign Minister A.H. Mahmud Ali told the diplomatic community based in Dhaka, including top officials of the UN agencies, that the country needs international support to provide “assistance in developing the island and in transporting the refugees to the new place”.
A Foreign Ministry statement said on Sunday that the representatives of the diplomatic community “expressed their readiness to help the government implement its relocation plan as and when it is finalised”.
However, some several Western diplomats have reportedly suggested that the refugees should not be moved against their will and that the place chosen for relocation was uninhabitable and prone to floods.
According to the government, over 4,00,000 Myanmar nationals, including the recently-arrived 69,000, are now living in Cox’s Bazar after fleeing military persecution in Myanmar’s Rakhine State.
Government agencies, meanwhile, reported that “networks” of human trafficking and narcotic drag smuggling have emerged in the Cox’s Bazar region due to the “vulnerable” nature of this refugee population.
The relocation would be a “temporary arrangement”, government officials stressed. Bangladesh has requested the international community to take “meaningful measures” for repatriation of the refugee population in Myanmar
