RED CROSS APPEALS FOR INVESTMENT FOR ROHINGYA RESETTLEMENT PROJECT IN BANGLADESH

Tue 30 March 2021:

The Bangladeshi Bhasan Char island camp that houses over 13,000 Rohingya refugees is in need of urgent financial aid to maintain humanitarian services in the upcoming cyclone season, an independent investigation by the Bangladesh Red Crescent Society and the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC) revealed on Monday.

In December, Bangladeshi authorities began to relocate Rohingya, an ethnic minority from Myanmar, to the remote Bhasan Char island in the south of the country from overcrowded camps in the southeastern town of Cox’s Bazaar, which currently hosts over 1.1 million refugees. Various international NGOs have consistently expressed concerns that the island is prone to natural disasters, which can pose risk to the people residing there.

The call for urgent investment comes ahead of the cyclone season about to hit the region. The investigation showed that while the island has evacuation centers in place to keep people safe, it is in danger of becoming cut off from steady supply shipments.

“With the cyclone season fast approaching, people on Bhasan Char could become stranded with a shortage of food when major storms strike, leaving the sea passage impassable, in turn denying the delivery of relief, medicines and other vital supplies,” Sanjeev Kafley, head of Bangladesh delegation in the IFRC, said in the official press release.

He stressed that the Bangladeshi government and the international community should step up efforts to provide safe living conditions to the relocated Rohingya and ensure that they have access to the essential resources, such as food, hygiene items and medical supplies.

Feroz Salah Uddin, secretary general of Bangladesh Red Crescent, noted that the organization has been working on providing the Bhasan Char island refugees with necessary relief services for the upcoming months.

“Bangladesh Red Crescent is working with authorities to deliver food packages, hygiene items, sanitation and health services to thousands of people on the island for the coming months,” he stated.

About one million Rohingya refugees fled Myanmar to Bangladesh since Myanmar authorities had launched a military campaign against the country’s Muslim minority in 2017 following attacks on police posts in Rakhine state, allegedly carried out by Rohingya militants. The fierce clashes between government forces and the Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army, an insurgent group that operates in Rakhine, had been ongoing until June 2019.