(11 Dec 2019) Authorities in Bangladesh say they want to start relocating thousands of Rohingya refugees to an island in the Bay of Bengal.
The island, Bhasan Char, is far from the mainland of Bangladesh, and is close to the border with Myanmar from where they fled.
A top government official, Kamal Hossain, said 100 refugee families had already agreed to the move.
The government would "motivate" other refugees to join them, he added.
Rohingya refugee community leader Noor Hossain Majhi said 17 families in his camp had been consulted by local officials and had shown interest in relocation.
But they wanted to see the island before deciding whether to make the move, Majhi said.
"If they like it, they will move there, otherwise they won't," he said.
The government has said it will relocate 100,000 refugees to the island in phases.
Hossain said they wanted to start the relocations in late November or in December.
The government set several deadlines earlier to complete the development of the island, but no final dates were announced.
Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina repeatedly told the U.N. and other international partners that her administration would engage them before making a final decision on the relocation.
The government has been building infrastructure on the island including homes, schools, mosques and flood protection embankments under a multimillion dollar project.
Many Rohingya refugees remain apprehensive about the government's relocation plan.
"It takes three hours to reach the place at Bhasan Char by boat where we will be relocated. What will happen if there is an accident or the island gets flooded?" said Nurul Haque.
Another refugee, Shafi Alam, made clear he had no intention of moving to the island.
"It would be better to kill us here rather than taking us there," he said.
The plan for relocation first came up in 2015, but no major progress was initially made.
But the issue was never dropped despite criticism, including from the United Nations and global human rights groups, which said relocation to the island would further complicate the lives of the refugees because of how often it floods.
Many Rohingya were also against the idea but things started to change in recent years, especially after a huge influx of Rohingya in 2017.
More than one million Rohingya currently live in Bangladesh, with over 700,000 coming from Myanmar since late August 2017 amid a violent crackdown on Rohingya by the country's military.
In August, Bangladesh and Myanmar attempted to start the repatriation of Rohingya for a second time, but no refugees agreed to voluntarily go back, citing safety concerns in Myanmar.
The United Nations said Myanmar needed to do more to build confidence among the Rohingya for the repatriation.
Rohingya Muslims have long demanded that Myanmar, a predominantly Buddhist country, give them citizenship, safety and their own land and homes they left behind.
Myanmar has refused to recognize Rohingya as citizens or even as one of its ethnic groups, rendering them stateless. Rohingya also face other forms of state-sanctioned discrimination.
***
Gambia filed a case on Novmber 11th at the United Nations' highest court accusing Myanmar of genocide in its campaign against the Rohingya Muslim minority.
Lawyers for Gambia said in a statement that the case also asks the International Court of Justice to urgently order measures "to stop Myanmar's genocidal conduct immediately".
Gambia filed the case on behalf of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation.
The head of a UN fact-finding mission on Myanmar warned last month that "there is a serious risk of genocide recurring".
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