UN delegation lauds Bhasan Char project

A high-level UN delegation yesterday lauded the Bhasan Char project and sought international community's support to make sure that the Rohingyas live there with dignity.

"The Bangladesh government has made an important investment in Bhasan Char by developing the housing facility. If you compare with Cox's Bazar refugee camps, the housing facilities are much better in Bhasan Char," said UN Assistant High Commissioner for Refugees (protection) Rouf Mazou, who visited the island in Noakhali on May 31 .

"What needs to be done now for us and the rest of the international community is to support the government and make sure those who are in Bhasan char and those who will be coming there can live in dignity," he told reporters after meeting Foreign Minister AK Abdul Momen at the state guesthouse Padma in the capital.

Gillian Triggs, assistant high commissioner for the refugees (operations), was with Mazou when he visited Bhasan Char where the Bangladesh Navy built a housing project for 100,000 Rohingyas.

Since December last year, some 20,000 Rohingya refugees were relocated to the island from Cox's Bazar where some one million Rohingyas, mostly those who fled a brutal military crackdown in Myanmar's Rakhine State in 2017, have been living in refugee camps.

Bangladesh has been seeking UN funding in Bhasan Char and the UN delegation and foreign ambassadors who visited the facility largely made positive observations. They, however, spoke of ensuring livelihood and education.

Mazou and Triggs were the latest officials who made the visit there during their four-day tour to Bangladesh that began on May 30. However, several thousand Rohingyas demonstrated as the UN delegation visited the island on Monday, demanding work opportunities, better food, and education before they get repatriated to Myanmar.

Rohingya representatives meeting the delegation also demanded resettlement to a third country.

Rouf Mazou said, "It is clear that when you live on an island like Bhasan Char, you feel isolated. Therefore, you must first have economic activities.

"We must make sure that they have education, healthcare and livelihood… they are not idle."

It is an opportunity that should be used the best before they return to Myanmar, he said.

Mazou said the UN is in discussion with the government over beginning operations in Bhasan Char.

It is the UNHCR mandate to work with the government to help the refugees wherever they are, he said.

About the third country resettlement, Gillian Triggs said he discussed the matter with the foreign minister. "This can be done for very vulnerable people and very small groups. But repatriation is the ultimate solution."

Triggs said the UN is working with the Myanmar government on some projects to improve the conditions in Rakhine, but added that the political situation in Myanmar is very difficult.

The UN will continue to work with the Myanmar authorities and pursue it for Rohingya repatriation, she said.

AK Abdul Momen said Rohingyas in Bhasan Char are frustrated because they don't have education and income and they see no future. They vented their frustration during the demonstration.

He said he requested the UN to press on Myanmar's military government and create conditions for Rohingya return.

The UN officials also thanked Bangladesh for its generosity in sheltering the Rohingyas despite its own limitations.