This Country May Relocate an Entire Refugee Community to a Remote Island Prone to Flooding and Cyclones

  • by: Care2 Team
  • recipient: Foreign minister Ak Abdul Momen and Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina
After a brutal and organized campaign of "ghettoization, sporadic massacres, and restrictions on movement" on the Rohingya people by the Myanmar government, hundreds of thousands of the persecuted people left their homes in northern Rakhine state and fled to the neighboring country of Bangladesh. To date, there are more than a million Rohingya refugees in Bangladesh escaping what researchers have called genocide. For the most part, they are safe.

Yet officials in Dhaka are about to do something that might put them in danger once more.

Many of the Rohingya refugees are now living in the Cox's Bazar, an area located just across the border of their homeland in western Myanmar. Bangladeshi officials have decided to relocate them to a silt island that many experts extremely prone to floods and cyclones. Cyclones in this part of the world pose a serious threat to human life. Cyclone Nargis, for example, that hit neighboring Myanmar killed nearly 140,000 people.

The silt island, Bhasan Char, is located some 18 and a half miles from mainland Bangladesh. It only appeared over the past two decades from the Meghna river and its low elevation and location make it a dangerous place to house any population, especially vulnerable one like the Rohingya. Experts worry the Bangladeshi government is trying to push the refugees out of sight. They also worry that if there ever were heavy rains or a serious cyclone, the Rohingya would be stranded as the island is so far away from the coast.

The foreign affairs minister has said that refugees could start arriving to Bhasan Char within the next few months. Just in time for the cyclone season of October and November.

This plan puts an already isolated people even further away from resources and exposes them to serious tragedy if floods or cyclones cross their path on the island. Unfortunately, it seems like Bangladesh, at the moment, is set on doing it. We have little time to stand up and tell Dhaka that their Rohingya refugee relocation plan is dangerous and must be thrown out.

Help stand up against this wrongheaded and dangerous initiative. Sign the petition and tell foreign minister Ak Abdul Momen and Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina to let the refugees stay put in Cox's Bazar.

Photo credit: Youtube
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