DHAKA • A global rights group has cast doubt on Bangladesh’s claims that thousands of Rohingya refugees are ready to move to a new island site that critics say is prone to natural disasters.
Dhaka has long wanted to move 100,000 people to the silt islet of Bhashan Char to relieve overcrowded mainland camps where almost a million Rohingya have lived since fleeing a brutal military crackdown in Myanmar in 2017.
Bangladeshi officials have said that between 6,000 and 7,000 Rohingya have already expressed their willingness to be relocated to the island, starting next month.
But Fortify Rights said on Friday that it interviewed 14 Rohingya at three camps, including some allegedly willing to go, and found that none had been consulted “and all opposed it”.
One woman told Fortify Rights: “If the Bangladesh government forces me to go to the island, I will commit suicide by drinking poison here in the camp.”
The US-based group quoted another woman as saying: “We are afraid of living near the water. People say it takes four hours by boat to reach the island… Even if they force me to go there, I will not go.”
The rights group said officials were pressuring Rohingya camp leaders to identify those to be relocated, and that it had seen a copy of a list naming over 70 families.
“The island is not a sustainable solution for refugees and no one knows that better than the Rohingya themselves,” said Fortify Rights chief Matthew Smith.
Other rights groups have also expressed misgivings about moving people to the island in the Bay of Bengal, which takes around three hours to reach by boat.
The move has yet to be endorsed by United Nations agencies.
Bangladesh is growing impatient with the Rohingya’s presence in the country, and has clamped down on them since a repatriation attempt collapsed in August with not one of the refugees agreeing to return to Myanmar.
AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE