The government of Bangladesh has decided to evict the refugees-Rohingya people from Myanmar on a desert island which floods at high tides. About it reports Reuters.
“We fear that a regular influx of Muslim Rohingya will lead to deterioration of a criminogenic situation in the country and will help spread diseases and create other social and financial problems”, — reads the statement of the government.
To avoid the mixing of Rohingya with the local population is planned until their deportation to Myanmar to host migrants on the island Dengar, Char in the Bay of Bengal. This piece of land was formed 11 years ago from the sediments of the river Meghna. It completely disappears under water during high tide and is not even marked on many maps.
This decision caused indignation of human rights activists and Rohingya themselves. Bangladesh interior Ministry said in response that it will send a special Commission to survey the island. “If this place is uninhabitable, the government will make it fit” — promised in the Ministry, noting that the decision to send refugees to Thangar, Char will not be canceled.
Rohingya people, living mainly in Rakhine state, Myanmar. Rohingya people practice Islam and consider themselves the indigenous people of Rakhine, while the majority of Burmese are practicing Buddhism, it is believed that they migrated into the country from Bangladesh during the British rule. The current regime of Myanmar is trying to displace the Rohingya to neighboring countries or to assimilate them. Currently in Bangladesh there are more than half a million representatives of this nation, and 69 thousand of them fled from Myanmar in the last four months.