2 dozen Rohingya refugees feared drowned in Bangladesh

Dhaka - The refugees were trying to flee a remote Bangladeshi island

More than two dozen Rohingya refugees were missing and feared drowned after a boat carrying them capsized in the Bay of Bengal, the United Nations and Bangladeshi police said on Sunday.

The refugees were apparently trying to flee a remote Bangladeshi island. Several thousand Rohingya have been relocated to the island after previously residing in crowded camps near the border with Myanmar.

The relocation has been criticised by the UN and human rights groups, who say the island isn’t fit for habitation. The island used to be regularly submerged by monsoon rains, but the government now says it’s been outfitted with protective sea walls, hospitals, schools and mosques.

“On the morning of 14 August, UNHCR was alerted that a boat carrying dozens of Rohingya refugees had capsized close to Bhasan Char island overnight,” the UN’s refugee agency said in a Facebook post.

“We are devastated that reportedly many passengers, including women and children, have tragically drowned. The confirmed number is not yet known,” it said.

A police official in Noakhali district, where the island is located, said by phone that about 40 refugees including women and children were in a fishing boat, but it sank in bad weather.

Speaking on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the issue, the official said the refugees were “apparently fleeing the island”.

The official said at least 14 refugees were rescued by fishermen and brought back to the island.

One survivor described her pain.

“My children have floated away. I had seven family members in my family. Only one of them has survived and rest of them are no more. Oh Allah, why so many difficulties on us, Rohingya,” said Senu Ara, a 35-year-old Rohingya refugee and survivor.

The UN said local Bangladeshi fishermen arrived on the scene first and alerted authorities.

“The search and rescue operation is being led by the authorities, notably the Bangladesh Navy and the Coast Guard,” it said.

“We are seeking further information from the Government of Bangladesh at this time and remain in contact with refugee communities both on Bhasan Char and in Cox’s Bazar in an attempt to support the authorities in further rescue efforts,” the agency said.

The government of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, which has sheltered more than 1.1 million Rohingya refugees from neighbouring Myanmar, has relocated about 20,000 refugees to the island from sprawling camps in Cox’s Bazar district.

The island in Noakhali district was developed by Bangladesh’s navy to accommodate some 100,000 refugees. Authorities earlier said they would relocate them to the island in phases.

Authorities said earlier the refugees came to the island voluntarily and they would have a better life.

“Bangladesh government brought us here to Bhasan Char by telling us that they will give us all kinds of opportunities. But we cannot generate any income here. We cannot move around freely. We are kept here like in prison,” said Sana Ullah, a 35-year-old Rohingya refugee and survivor.

“All my children have died while trying to escape. I have lost four and my sister has lost five. My brother-in-law have lost five, and my brother has lost eight. They are all dead,” Ullah said.

“We don’t have anything now. We are requesting to UNHCR that we don’t want to live in Bhasan Char anymore,” he said.

More than 700,000 Rohingya have fled to refugee camps in Bangladesh since August 2017, when the military in Buddhist-majority Myanmar began a harsh crackdown on the Muslim ethnic group following an attack by insurgents. They joined hundreds of thousands of others who have fled to Bangladesh over decades.

The 2017 crackdown included rapes, killings and the torching of thousands of homes, and was termed ethnic cleansing by global rights groups and the UN. While Bangladesh and Myanmar have sought to arrange repatriations, the Rohingya are too fearful to return home.

• Asia