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Rohingya 2nd batch go to Bhasan Char this month


Published : 23 Dec 2020 09:35 PM | Updated : 24 Dec 2020 01:57 AM

The second batch of Rohingyas will be relocated from Kutupalong refugee camp in Cox's Bazar district to Bhasan Char, a new island shelter under Noakhali district, this month. 

The first batch of the refugees shifted to Bhasan Char earlier this month created a good impression on the Forcibly Displaced Rohingya Nationals or FDMN. More than 1600 Rohingyas were in the first batch and around 1000 will be in the second batch.

The government has built a settlement with modern facilities under supervision of the Bangladesh Navy, for 100 thousand Rohingyas in Bhasan Char at a cost of Tk 3000 crore with the support of British consultant firm Wallingford and Chinese firm Sino- Hydro.

Commodore Abdullah Al Mamun Chowdhury, Project Director of Bhasan Char shelter project said,  ”After the relocation of the first batch of Rohingyas successfully, preparation is now underway to receive the second batch of Rohingyas in the new settlement soon.

In the second batch, 1000 Rohingyas may arrive, the RRRC (Refugee, Relief and Repatriation Commissioner) is arranging the events,”he added. 

The Rohingyas who were shifted to Basan Char are now enjoying the new modern settlement and asking their near and dear ones to come to Bhasan Char. Due to this, a large number of Rohingys are waiting to be shifted to the settlement from the squeezed refugee camps of Cox's Bazar. 

Every day, many Rohingyas are asking when they will be shifted, officials in Cox's Bazar said. 

Manzur Alam Majhi, a Rohingya leader in Bhasan Char and resident of Cluster 9 of the shelter said to this reporter, they( Rohingyas in Bhasan Char) have motivated many from the Kutupalong camps.

“Everything we need is provided by the authorities. We are also moving freely here, He added.

With the support of the authorities, the Rohingyas of Bhasan Char have also arranged some recreational programmes recently, said Manzur Alam, ‘this week in our Cluster a picnic was arranged with fried rice, chicken and eggs.’   

Government officials have pledged that no one will be forced to relocate to the island, but moving there will alleviate overcrowding in the Cox’s Bazar refugee camps, they said.  

 Concrete housing blocks, solar panels, roads, and a mobile phone network were reportedly installed on Bhasan Char, the area has also been secured with a 13km long flood and tide control embankment. 

In the last 15  days two Rohingya babies were born in the island, said an official.  

Bangladesh has had to accommodate nearly 1 million Rohingya refugees in Cox’s Bazar—one of the poorest and most densely populated places on the planet—after they were uprooted by successive waves of violence across the border in Myanmar. In 2017, more than 730,000 members of the Muslim minority group fled a military-led campaign of rape, murder, and arson that is currently the subject of a genocide trial.