Govt to shift Rohingya camp to Hatiya

Government moves are underway to free the resort city of Cox’s Bazaar for the tourists by shifting from there decades old two camps of the Rohingya refugees to an isolated area in offshore island of Hatiya in Noakhali, said officials.The Rohingyas began crossing into Bangladesh in 1991 persecuted and thrown out of their homes by Myanmar authorities. The Myanmar refugees, both registered and unregistered, brought a huge social and financial burden on overpopulated Bangladesh. They also get involved in various criminal activities.Officials said that it was easier for the Myanmar refuges easier to cross into bordering Cox’s Bazaar even on foot than it would be to reach Hatiya.
Officials of several ministries officials told New Age that following directives from the prime minister’s office, a 500-acre area had been selected in Hatiya to open a camp for relocating the registered refugees.
They said that the PMO gave the directive to shift both the refugee camps from Kutupalang and Nayapara in Cox’s Bazaar.
The officials said that the government took massive plans for the development of the resort city of Cox’s Bazaar, known for its longest natural sea beach on earth.
They also said the government wants to discourage Myanmar’s persecuted Rohingya refugees crossing into bordering district of Cox’s Bazaar separated by the Naaf River.
The officials said that the authorities selected an isolated and larger area for the refugee camp in Hatiya.
They said that the refugees would get the opportunities of work inside the camp.
Now, they said, the refugees live in inhuman conditions in much smaller camps in Cox’s Bazaar.
The officials said that the government was planning to hold a census of unregistered Rohingya refugees from Myanmar illegally living outside the camps.
According to official documents, 33,000 registered Rohingya refugees are housed in the two camps in Cox’s Bazaarunder the supervision of UN High Commissioner for Refugees and over three lakh more unregistered refugees from Myanmar are living in Bangladesh outside the camps.
Only the registered refugees would be relocated to Hatiya, Disaster Management and Relief Ministry’s head of Mayanmar refugee cell Amit Kumar Baul told New Age.
‘We will start the relocation process after the land ministry gives the clearance for building the refugee camp in Hatiya,’ said Amit, also additional secretary of the DMR ministry.
Land ministry officials said that they selected a remote khas land in Hatiya for the refugee camp and sought the clearance from the ministry of forest.
Deputy Commissioner of Noakhali Badre Munir Firdaus said that the proposed site for the refugee camp was in an area far from the habitations.
It takes at least 90 minutes by speedboat to reach the camp site from the Hatiya township, said upazila nibahi officer Abu Hasnat Md Moinuddin.
Foreign ministry officials said that Bangladesh was facing problems in sheltering the regular flow of undocumented refugees from Myanmar.
Since 1991, streams of the Rohingya refuges crossed into Bangladesh following persecution in Myanmar, their homeland.

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