UN’s decision to visit Bhasan Char encouraging

The UN's decision to send a delegation to visit Bhasan Char, where the government has built a housing facility for around one lakh Rohingya refugees, is a welcome one. With this development, the year-long impasse between the UN and the government of Bangladesh is finally coming to an end. There had been differences of viewpoints between the Bangladesh government and the UN bodies in relocating the Rohingya to this island of Noakhali. While the Bangladesh government was determined to relocate the Rohingya, the UN expressed its reservations about the move. Now that the government has given the UN a positive signal to visit the newly-built facilities at Bhasan Char and the UN has also agreed to it, we hope it will be a win-win situation for all the parties involved—the Bangladesh government, the UN and the Rohingya refugees, who will be the main beneficiaries of the project.

The government has made it clear time and again that the relocation was necessary to ease congestion, save the environment in Cox's Bazar and to solve some other important issues, such as human trafficking, gender-based violence, conflicts between different factions of the refugee communities, etc. Since the government started the relocation process in December last year, a total of 13,000 refugees have relocated to Bhasan Char. The government has arranged for skills training to create employment for those relocated in the char. It already took the government Tk 3,100 crores to develop the facilities at Bhasan Char, and a lot more funds will be required to feed the one lakh Rohingya there after the relocation is complete. Although a number of NGOs have started working there to support the refugees, that is just not enough. The government needs the UN and other international aid agencies' assistance to successfully implement the project.

We think the UN should be aware of the efforts that Bangladesh has made so far in hosting the 1.1 million Rohingya refugees, and also of the efforts the country is still making to ensure a safe and dignified life for them. We hope it will send its delegation to Bhasan Char soon to see the development and take immediate actions to provide humanitarian assistance. Conversely, Bangladesh must also listen to the concerns of the UN bodies since we have received so much support from them from the beginning of the Rohingya crisis in 2017. One of the major concerns of the UN was the risks of tidal surge and cyclones on the remote island. However, the government has already built 120 cyclone shelters and flood protection embankments in the char, which the UN can now inspect.

We hope that the year-long stalemate between the UN and the government will end with the UN team's visit to Bhasan Char, and that it will remove any concerns that the UN has about the relocation. We expect that both parties will work collaboratively for the safe relocation of Rohingya refugees to the newly built facility and to provide them the support they need.