Rohingya refugees exiled to Bhashan Char island off the southwest coast of Bangladesh have claimed they were beaten by the country’s officials for going on hunger strike to demand better living conditions and with their families in camps on the island Mainland to be reunited.
Several Rohingya who did not want to be named told Al Jazeera that men, women and even children were “beaten with sticks” by Bangladeshi naval officers after they went on a four-day hunger strike last month.
Photos of men injured in the beating were provided to Al Jazeera by Rohingya activists who refused to be named for fear of official retaliation.
“Listen, there is no one here who is satisfied with the living conditions. We don’t get enough to eat, we don’t have clothes to wear, we don’t have phones. We have nothing, ”said a Rohingya who wanted to remain anonymous.
Last year, Bangladesh built facilities for 100,000 people on Bhashan Char, a muddy mud island in the cyclone-prone coastal belt in the Bay of Bengal. They said they needed to take the pressure off of overcrowded camps that are home to nearly a million Rohingya.
The mainly Muslim Rohingya live in spacious refugee camps in southern Bangladesh. Most came from neighboring Myanmar in late 2017 after fleeing a military operation carried out with genocidal intent, according to the United Nations.
To curb the spread of the coronavirus in the overcrowded camps, more than 300 Rohingya were transported to Bhashan Char in May after attempting to flee to Malaysia by boat.
Photos of men injured in the beating were provided to Al Jazeera by Rohingya activists who refused to be named for fear of official retaliation [Al Jazeera]
“Regrettable living conditions”
But those on the island told Al Jazeera that living conditions were deplorable due to insufficient food and water.
“We didn’t eat anything for four days because we want to get out of here. We went on a hunger strike, but they forced us to eat and beat us so badly. They also beat the young women. Their violence was worse than that of the Burmese [Myanmar] Military, even if they never hit us that bad, ”one man told Al Jazeera, who said he wanted to be reunited with his family in the Kutupalong camp on the mainland.
Their violence was worse than that of the Burmese (Myanmar) military …
One witness told Al Jazeera that men, women and children “whoever got in their way were beaten” while another referred to the island as a “prison”.
“Some of us sleep on the concrete floor and there are no sleeping covers. We are given little to eat and the water for bathing makes our skin itchy and causing eczema, ”he said.
Describing the hunger strike, a Rohingya witness told Al Jazeera that the participants “refused to eat the food” or “meet the chefs” when “asked” to do so.
“We refused to go. Then they came for us. We locked ourselves in, but they came into the building and beat us. They said we have to eat the food and we can’t do what we want because they are in charge, ”he said.
The Rohingya said children as young as four were also on hunger strike. “Even the children told the officials that they would not accept food until they knew we could all return to Kutupalong, but they were forced to eat.” Kutupalong is one of the largest Rohingya camps in the Cox district of Bazar in Bangladesh.
Brad Adams, Asia director of Human Rights Watch, urged the authorities “to allow United Nations experts to conduct an independent assessment of the island and ensure that any relocation there is voluntary.”
“In a darkly ironic attempt to portray Bhasan Char as a safe place, the Bangladeshi authorities beat Rohingya refugees, including children, who protested their detention and asked to return to their families in Cox ‘Bazar,” he said in last week an explanation.
“No school, no mosque, nothing”
Of the 306 refugees on the island, according to witnesses, 30 are children, 97 men and 179 women.
“We have been here for more than five months. There is no school, no mosque, nothing. Here is nothing. They’re leaving us nowhere. We stay in our rooms to eat, sleep and pray, ”said a witness.
“The bosses are telling us that we have to stay here because this place was made for us and they will bring more people from Kutupalong camp to stay here,” he said.
A Rohingya camp on Bhasan Char Island [Al Jazeera]In contrast to the Rohingya camps on the mainland, there are currently no NGOs or employees of UN refugee agencies on the island of Bhasan Char.
UNHCR spokeswoman Louise Donovan told Al Jazeera that the UN had informed Dhaka that it was “ready” to visit the island to assess the humanitarian situation.
She said it was “now urgent for the UN to have access to the Rohingya” and given the reports of abuse on the island, “it is even more urgent that the UN protection visit to Bhasan Char take place as soon as possible. ” so that we can interview the refugees directly ”.
Last month, a group of 40 Rohingya leaders visiting Bangladesh were sent to Bhashan Char to assess facilities on the island. However, London-based journalist and filmmaker Shafiur Rahman said such moves were “just PR [public relations]”.
Rahman told Al Jazeera that he had spoken to members of the Rohingya group about impressions of their trip to the island. He said one person told him, “It is better to go to Myanmar than to this island.”
He said another member of the group added, “Even if we don’t have a roof in Myanmar, we can do it. We don’t want to live in a golden cage. Our dream remains to return to our country. Give us back our land. “
The Bangladeshi Navy and the Office of the Refugee Aid and Repatriation Commissioner’s Office did not respond to Al Jazeera’s request for a response to the allegations at the time of this writing.
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