UN to operate on controversial Rohingya island it once criticized

Bangladesh officials say the United Nations has finally agreed to begin operations on Bhashan Char, a low-lying silt island in the Bay of Bengal where thousands of Rohingya refugees have been shifted in recent months. Before and when the relocation began in December 2020, the U.N. criticized the project on the grounds of safety, liveability, and freedom of movement of its residents.

“It was already understood that the U.N. would start its operation on Bhashan Char. What both sides were bargaining with each other was the technical aspects [of the U.N.’s operational engagement],” Md. Delwar Hossain, director-general of the Myanmar wing of Bangladesh’s foreign ministry, told Devex by phone. “We have agreed on a text which, it is hoped, [will be adopted] without any change.”

His comments came as reports in Bangladesh media say the government and U.N. agreed on a draft memorandum of understanding, laying the foundation for its forthcoming operational engagement on the island.

When contacted by Devex, the UN Refugee Agency came up short of confirming the local media reports. “[The] discussions are continuing with the Government of Bangladesh, and we expect a conclusion to be reached soon,” Hannah Macdonald, external relations officer at UNHCR, said in an emailed response.

Bangladesh has reportedly spent $350 million to build housing and other structures on the previously uninhabited island to host 100,000 refugees. The government says the project will help ease the pressure on overcrowded camps in Cox’s Bazar, where over 700,000 refugees, who fled violence and atrocities committed in neighboring Myanmar, have been living since 2017.

Critics, however, argue that authorities tightly control the only waterways to reach the island, restricting the freedom of movement of the refugees, earning the project its most notorious moniker: “island jail.” Experts also stress the risks of flooding and cyclones during monsoon, and reports that some refugees were coerced and manipulated into agreeing to transfer to Bhashan Char have emerged. In recent months, dozens of refugees reportedly managed or attempted to escape from the island.

Technical and protection assessments

When the Bangladesh authorities transferred the first batch of refugees to Bhashan Char in December 2020, a UNHCR spokesperson told Devex that independent technical and protection assessments would be a prerequisite to determining “whether the United Nations can engage operationally with the government’s Bhashan Char project.” However, the U.N. is now on the brink of initiating its presence on the island based solely on an intra-U.N. tour, without being able to carry out or facilitate any independent assessments.

In March, the government arranged for a tour by an 18-member U.N. delegation on the island. A brief observational report prepared by the team was circulated among Western embassies and accessed by Devex. The report recognized the government’s “significant investment” on the island and, for the first time, signaled a positive change in tone: Instead of rejecting the Bhashan Char outright, the U.N. team suggested future relocations may be undertaken in a gradual or phased manner.

UNHCR’s Macdonald, too, notes that it was during the March visit that the U.N. recognized “the prevailing humanitarian and protection needs of the Rohingya refugees relocated there.”

Meenakshi Ganguly, South Asia director at the Human Rights Watch, which had earlier criticized the U.N. 's changed posture on Bhashan Char, acknowledged the dilemma facing the humanitarian groups and placed the onus on the government. “Humanitarian agencies have a duty to provide assistance, but we find the government has not yet kept its commitments for an independent safety and protection assessment,” she said.

“It is good if the U.N. can start providing protection services on Bhasan Char. The relocation was rushed, without proper informed consent, and many of the refugees are deeply unhappy. If, as the government says, the relocations were voluntary, then they should also make arrangements to return those in Bhasan Char that no longer wish to remain,” she added.

Aside from attempts to flee the island, the frustrations among many refugees on the island were also on display during the visit of two senior UNHCR officials — Assistant High Commissioners for Protection Gillian Triggs and Raouf Mazou — in May as thousands of refugees protested the living conditions in the island. Despite the protest, the U.N. issued a statement recognizing “the potential” of the island, while mentioning caveats such as the need for freedom of movement for refugees.

Shahab Enam Khan, a professor of international relations at Jahangirnagar University in Dhaka, argues that Bangladesh was able to convince the U.N. and the international community to be on board.

“There is good infrastructure on Bhashan Char which has provided confidence among the international stakeholders, which probably has enabled the U.N. agencies to gain confidence to actively work in Bhashan Char,” said Khan, who also serves as the research director at the Bangladesh Enterprise Institute, a prominent local think-tank.

“The people are already in Bhashan Char. That’s the reality. Once the settlement is there, lives have started to settle down. It naturally implies that humanitarian assistance should begin without delay,” he added. “This is a problem that requires international commitment as it is caused by Myanmar, not Bangladesh. Bangladesh has done the best it could do.”

How will the UN engage?

Bangladesh’s Foreign Secretary Masud Bin Momen told the local media that aid operations between two groups of refugees — in Cox’s Bazar and Bhashan Char — will be different. He said that both sides have agreed that Rohingyas can receive formal education but on a Burmese-language curriculum and will have limited freedom of movement, among other things.

An official involved with the U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs said the organization was not approached by the U.N. leadership to formulate any coordination mechanism on the island, suggesting that a degree of separation will be observed in aid operations between Cox’s Bazar and Bhashan Char.

Rather than pass any judgment on whether the island was safe and sustainable, the U.N. plans to solely address the humanitarian needs of the refugee population, a separate U.N. official involved with refugee responses said. Both officials requested anonymity as they were not authorized to speak to the press.

Avoiding criticism

Within the U.N., there has been some frustration among officials as they struggle to avoid criticism.

“If we engage on Bhashan Char, people say we should not have engaged. If we don’t engage, people say ‘why haven’t you engaged — refugees are in a difficult situation?,’” the second U.N. official said.

A major factor that the U.N. was forced to acknowledge was the dismal health facilities available in Bhashan Char. International humanitarian medical organizations repeatedly voiced their concerns in private that their former patients relocated to the island cannot access services and medicines as basic as insulin. In June 2021, a diarrhea outbreak affected thousands of refugees and killed at least five, including four children, alarming the U.N. and aid agencies.

“We have a responsibility to those on Bhashan Char in the same way we do to the thousands of refugees in Cox’s Bazar,” the U.N. official added. “We just can’t turn our back on them just because they have been moved to a different location.”