Bangladesh has brought around 2,000 more Rohingya refugees from overcrowded camps to an island 35 kilometers away, which, according to aid organizations, is exposed to storms and floods during the monsoon season. There are now more than 8,500 refugees there, a responsible official told the dpa today. Despite criticism from aid organizations, the government of Bangladesh is sticking to its plan to send 100,000 Rohingya to the island.
Hundreds of thousands of members of the Muslim minority from the predominantly Buddhist neighboring country of Myanmar fled from military violence to Muslim Bangladesh in 2017 and are now living in camps. The United Nations calls their persecution in their home country Myanmar an ongoing genocide.
NGOS: No independent observation possible
In December, the aid organization Amnesty International announced that it was not possible to independently monitor the situation on the island, as aid organizations were only allowed to enter it with prior permission. According to local authorities, the Rohingya voluntarily go to the island, on which Bangladesh has built, among other things, accommodation, hospitals, dams and mosques for around 300 million euros.
Many Rohingya citizens lost their citizenship in Myanmar through a 1983 law. The Myanmar military has come under international criticism for the persecution. Quite a few Rohingya want to return to their homeland.
