UN delegation going to Bhasan Char today

A UN delegation is going to Bhasan Char on a three-day visit today to see first-hand the housing facility for 100,000 Rohingyas. 

Facilitated by the government, the visit will bring together experts from UN agencies engaged in the Rohingya refugee response in Bangladesh, said Mostafa Mohammad Sazzad Hossain, Assistant Communication Officer at UNHCR Bangladesh.

Contacted, he told this correspondent today, "The visit will look at the current situation and facilities on Bhasan Char, appraise the needs of the Rohingya refugees relocated there, as well as discuss with the authorities and others currently working on Bhasan Char."

The development comes following an impasse of more than a year between the government and the UN regarding the global body's technical assessment of the facility.

The government has already relocated some 13,000 Rohingyas to Bhasan Char, an island under Noakhali district, from Cox's Bazar in phases since December last year. It is in the process of relocating more in the coming days.

Bangladesh Navy implemented the Tk 3,100 crore housing project after some 750,000 Rohingyas had fled a military crackdown in Myanmar's Rakhine state in 2017 and took shelter in the camps in Teknaf and Ukhia. 

Apart from the risk of landslides in the hilly terrain, the government cited issues such as drug peddling, human trafficking, gender-based violence, conflicts between factions of the refugee communities in Cox's Bazar, and environmental degradation as major reasons for the relocation. 

The UN had raised concerns over risks of tidal surge and cyclone at the remote island, but the government said with 120 brick-built cluster villages and 120 cyclone shelters, flood protection embankments, facilities for education, farming and fishing, hospitals and playgrounds, the Char is a much better living place than the Cox's Bazar camps. 

The UN said it wanted to send one of its technical teams to the island to assess the housing facilities. Asked by the government, it even submitted the terms of reference for the visit in December 2019. 

The move got stalled after that. 

Project officials said separate buildings for the UN and other international aid agencies have also been constructed in Bhasan Char. 

After relocation of the first batch of Rohingyas in December last year, some 44 NGOs volunteered to go there and started providing humanitarian assistance to the refugees. There were concerns over how funds needed for 100,000 Rohingyas would be managed after their relocation. 

The government has been urging the UN to begin its operations in Bhasan Char, but the UN as well as donor countries had been seeking an independent technical assessment of the facility. 

The government, however, maintained no such technical assessment was necessary as Bhasan Char has been equipped with a well-built facility developed by maintaining international standards and addressing all risks involved. 

Apart from having spent a huge amount of money for the housing project, Bangladesh faces enormous economic, political, environmental and even security challenges because of the Rohingyas, though the country initially sheltered them solely on humanitarian grounds. 

"The international community must consider the burden on Bangladesh and act accordingly," a foreign ministry official said. 

NGO officials said if there was any gap in communication between the UN and government, it must be solved on the Bhasan Char issue.