A Rohingya boy carries his brother toward shore of the Naf River as people arrive by boats in Teknaf, Bangladesh. File Photo by Abir Abdullah/EPA-EFE
Dec. 28 (UPI) -- The government of Bangladesh says it will move a second group of 1,800 Rohingya refugees to an island in the Bay of Bengal, despite strong opposition from human rights groups.
Bangladesh sent more than 1,600 of the minority Muslim refugees to the remote island of Bhashan Char earlier this month. Officials said the Rohingya voluntarily departed overcrowded refugee camps, and the government said no one is being forced to go to the flood-prone island.
"Today, we have mobilized 1,772 Rohingyas from 427 families for Chittagong," a government official said Monday. "This time, the figure is 130 more than the first batch [of 1,642]."
Mamun Chowdhury, director of the Bhashan Char Project, said the island is prepared to accommodate the refugees.
"We are expecting more than 1,000 people [Tuesday]," Chowdhury said. "Our preparations to make their stay comfortable have been completed."
Moving the Rohingya to Bhashan Char, however, has drawn substantial criticisms.
Local and global humanitarian groups have said the low-lying island, which has been above sea level for only 20 years and has never been inhabited, is an unsuitable location for the refugees, who fled to Bangladesh to escape violence in Myanmar.
Bangladesh has struggled to come up with a solution to the growing number of refugees, many of whom are still living in crowded conditions in camps at Cox's Bazar.
Bangladeshi foreign minister Abdul Momen said Bhashan Char is "100 times better" than the overpopulated camps, where health experts fear a dangerous spread of COVID-19.
Rohingya refugee crisis remains unresolved 3 years after violence
Rohingya refugees remain in camp settlements in Cox's Bazar, Bangladesh, on the three-year anniversary of the outbreak of violence in Myanmar. File Photo by Abir Abdullah/EPA-EFE
Aug. 25 (UPI) -- More than a million Rohingya refugees living in Bangladesh remain in limbo three years after hundreds of thousands fled Myanmar amid targeted persecution.
Bangladesh opened its borders to more than 700,000 people fleeing violence in Myanmar, but tensions have been rising between the Bangladeshi government and the refugees.
The novel coronavirus has also arrived at the run-down camps in the Cox's Bazar district of Bangladesh, giving rise to new anxieties among the Rohingya struggling to make ends meet, Japanese news agency Kyodo News reported Monday.
Frustration is also mounting in Dhaka as the Bangladeshi government could be seeking the repatriation of the Rohingya but Myanmar remains less than cooperative about the plans.
"Myanmar is delaying to take back the Rohingyas citing the coronavirus pandemic and an election in that country in October as reasons," Bangladesh's Foreign Minister AK Abdul Momen told Kyodo.
According to Momen, Bangladesh has sent Myanmar a list of 600,000 refugees for the repatriation, but Myanmar agreed to accept only 30,000 people on the list, the report says.
Myanmar continues to deny accusations of genocide amid rising concerns about a second wave of COVID-19.
Myanmar State Counselor Daw Aung San Suu Kyi suggested in a speech Tuesday the country needs to pull together to combat the virus without discrimination based on religion or ethnicity.
"Please take it as a chance to repair our international image. We need [an attitude of] strong determination, like 'We can make it'," the politician said, according to local news service The Irrawady, which also described the 2017 mass killings as "security clearance operations" of the military.
Human Rights Watch condemned Myanmar on Tuesday for the ongoing refugee crisis and for failing to guarantee a safe haven for the Rohingya.
"The Myanmar government has failed to ensure that nearly 1 million Rohingya refugees can safely return home three years since fleeing the Myanmar military's crimes against humanity and possible genocide," the group said in statement.
In 2018, Amnesty International stripped Suu Kyi of a human rights award in the wake of the violence.
On Aug. 25, 2017, the Myanmar military began to target Rohingya Muslims with violence that included rape and arson. The attack was a response to an initial assault from a group called the Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army.
Rohingya refugees remain in camp settlements in Cox's Bazar, Bangladesh, on the three-year anniversary of the outbreak of violence in Myanmar. File Photo by Abir Abdullah/EPA-EFE
Aug. 25 (UPI) -- More than a million Rohingya refugees living in Bangladesh remain in limbo three years after hundreds of thousands fled Myanmar amid targeted persecution.
Bangladesh opened its borders to more than 700,000 people fleeing violence in Myanmar, but tensions have been rising between the Bangladeshi government and the refugees.
The novel coronavirus has also arrived at the run-down camps in the Cox's Bazar district of Bangladesh, giving rise to new anxieties among the Rohingya struggling to make ends meet, Japanese news agency Kyodo News reported Monday.
Frustration is also mounting in Dhaka as the Bangladeshi government could be seeking the repatriation of the Rohingya but Myanmar remains less than cooperative about the plans.
"Myanmar is delaying to take back the Rohingyas citing the coronavirus pandemic and an election in that country in October as reasons," Bangladesh's Foreign Minister AK Abdul Momen told Kyodo.
According to Momen, Bangladesh has sent Myanmar a list of 600,000 refugees for the repatriation, but Myanmar agreed to accept only 30,000 people on the list, the report says.
Myanmar continues to deny accusations of genocide amid rising concerns about a second wave of COVID-19.
Myanmar State Counselor Daw Aung San Suu Kyi suggested in a speech Tuesday the country needs to pull together to combat the virus without discrimination based on religion or ethnicity.
"Please take it as a chance to repair our international image. We need [an attitude of] strong determination, like 'We can make it'," the politician said, according to local news service The Irrawady, which also described the 2017 mass killings as "security clearance operations" of the military.
Human Rights Watch condemned Myanmar on Tuesday for the ongoing refugee crisis and for failing to guarantee a safe haven for the Rohingya.
"The Myanmar government has failed to ensure that nearly 1 million Rohingya refugees can safely return home three years since fleeing the Myanmar military's crimes against humanity and possible genocide," the group said in statement.
In 2018, Amnesty International stripped Suu Kyi of a human rights award in the wake of the violence.
On Aug. 25, 2017, the Myanmar military began to target Rohingya Muslims with violence that included rape and arson. The attack was a response to an initial assault from a group called the Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army.
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