Hundreds of Rohingya refugees on a flood-prone island in the Bay of Bengal will not be allowed to leave unless they agree to return home, Bangladesh authorities say
The 306 Muslim Rohingya from Myanmar were put on Bhashan Char island in April after being taken off two boats trying to traffic them to Malaysia.
Their plight has been taken up by the United Nations, an international rights group and community leaders, who want them moved to more established refugee camps on the mainland.
“They will stay at Bhasan Char until they are repatriated to Myanmar,” Mohammed Khorshed Alam Khan, administrator for the district covering the island, tells AFP.
He says the refugees are well taken care of and have better facilities than in the overcrowded camps in Cox’s Bazar where 700,000 Rohingya fled in 2017 to escape a Myanmar military clampdown.
In April, Bangladesh authorities said the Rohingya would be kept on the island in order to stop the spread of coronavirus in the sprawling refugee camps.
But Human Rights Watch (HRW) questioned that motivation, and said the refugees were not being treated well.
— AFP
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