Rohingya leaders on a remote Bangladesh island say they expect greater freedom of movement for its exclusive refugee population when a United Nations agency takes over humanitarian activities there, while the prospect has already reduced “the trend of fleeing” that led to drownings.
Under a memorandum of understanding signed between Bangladesh and the U.N. refugee agency UNHCR earlier this month, the Rohingya residents of Bhashan Char will be able to move around the island freely, and the two sides will agree on refugee movements off the island as needed. BenarNews obtained a copy of the MoU, which the government and the U.N. agency have declined to make public.
The announcement of the U.N.’s “engagement on Bhashan Char has made our community people happy,” Rohingya leader Md Yeasin told BenarNews on Monday.
“The trend of fleeing is already being reduced, and it will hopefully be stopped when the people will be allowed free movement in the island area.”
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After months of negotiation, Dhaka and UNHCR on Oct. 9 signed the memorandum that clears the way for the U.N. agency to begin humanitarian operations on Bhashan Char, a tiny low-lying Bay of Bengal island where the government has built a housing complex and infrastructure to accommodate Rohingya refugees from Myanmar.
Since December 2020, Bangladesh has moved as many as 19,000 refugees there from sprawling and densely crowded Rohingya camps on the mainland, saying that Rohingya have been going to the island on a voluntary basis. Dhaka plans to relocate more than 80,000 others from those camps in Cox’s Bazar, a southeastern district near the Myanmar border.
“Our movement is very restricted here. We are always kept under tight surveillance,” Muhammad Sohel, another Rohingya leader, told BenarNews, an RFA-affiliated online news service.
“After the MoU was signed, UNHCR representatives already visited us, and they informed us about various facilities including free movement on the island.”
The rising cyberattacks from China on critical installations was discussed at the National Security Strategies Conference chaired by Home Minister Amit Shah on Monday. Chinese hackers are more sophisticated and they settle down in any network, striking at will, participants told.
The Madhya Pradesh police gave a presentation on various lacunae in the legal and administrative sphere that were an impediment in investigating such cases.
The participants were told that while the Pakistani cyberattacks focussed on stealing identity and personal data, the Chinese hackers were more sophisticated and they settled down in any network, striking at will.
“There are several choke points that deter investigation, such as the origin of the message and from where the data packet was uploaded. The minister agreed to expedite any legal framework required to plug the gaps,” said an official who attended the conference.
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On March 1, the Union Power Ministry said the government thwarted “state-sponsored” Chinese hacker groups targeting various Indian power centres in November 2020 and February 2021. U.S. cybersecurity and intelligence firm Recorded Future discovered that Chinese state-sponsored actors may have deployed malware into Indian power grids and seaports after border tensions between India-China began escalating in May 2020.
The conference, an annual event held at the Intelligence Bureau headquarters, was attended by Director General of Police of all States and Director Generals of the Central Armed Police Forces (CAPF). The nine-hour conference was divided into separate sessions.
A detailed discussion was also held on illegal migration and counter- terrorism measures.
“The counter-terror session centred around Islamic terrorism. There was no mention of extremism involving other religions,” said the official.
The session on illegal migrants encapsulated the Rohingya migrant crisis.
Rohingya, an ethnic group from Myanmar, mostly Muslims who faced persecution in the neighbouring country. have taken shelter in Bangladesh, India and Saudi Arabia since 2012.
Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina on Sunday (October 17) called the displaced Rohingyas and stranded Pakistanis as burden for Bangladesh, saying they are putting pressure on country’s economy.
“Three years have already passed after Rohingyas influx in Bangladesh and it’s a burden for us,” she said.
The prime minister said this while newly appointed Ambassador of the Netherlands to Bangladesh Anne Gerard Van Leeuwen paid a courtesy call on her at her official Ganabhaban residence here.
She added that the Rohingyas are also destroying the environment and forest resources of Cox’s Bazar.
She also talked about the stranded Pakistanis, saying, “These (Rohingyas and stranded Pakistanis) are creating economic pressure on Bangladesh.”
ALSO READ THIS: BRAC IN NON-FORMAL EDUCATION SECTOR, SAID BNFE DG ATAUR RAHMAN
Brac on Sunday said that the government is eager to collaborate with them in a long term partnership in the non-formal education sector, said Director-General of Bureau of Non-Formal Education (BNFE) Md Ataur Rahman.
The BNFE DG made the remarks while addressing a discussion organised by BRAC titled “Education Activities under Humanitarian Crisis Management Programme (HCMP)” at a hotel in Cox’s Bazar district town on Saturday evening, said a BRAC press release.According to a press statement issued by BRAC, the government is looking forward to utilising BRAC’s long term activities for Rohingyas and the host community in the development of the non-formal education sector.DHAKA, Bangladesh – Bangladesh intends to transfer more than 80,000 Rohingya refugees to a distant island in the Bay of Bengal after making a deal with the United Nations to provide help, officials said Friday.
PM’s Press Secretary Ihsanul Karim briefed the newsmen after the meeting.
Talking about the Rohingya issue, the Netherlands envoy apprised of his talking about the issue with the refugees and NGO activists.
He expressed his realization that the solution is rooted in sending back the Rohingyas to their native land Myanmar._BSS.
Brac on Sunday said that the government is eager to collaborate with them in a long term partnership in the non-formal education sector, said Director-General of Bureau of Non-Formal Education (BNFE) Md Ataur Rahman.
The BNFE DG made the remarks while addressing a discussion organised by BRAC titled “Education Activities under Humanitarian Crisis Management Programme (HCMP)” at a hotel in Cox’s Bazar district town on Saturday evening, said a BRAC press release.
According to a press statement issued by BRAC, the government is looking forward to utilising BRAC’s long term activities for Rohingyas and the host community in the development of the non-formal education sector.
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DHAKA, Bangladesh – Bangladesh intends to transfer more than 80,000 Rohingya refugees to a distant island in the Bay of Bengal after making a deal with the United Nations to provide help, officials said Friday.
In his address, the BNFE DG stressed innovating new ideas by utilising the experiences of field level BRAC employees regarding the non-formal education for Rohingyas and the host community.
According to the statement, BRAC brought 69,423 children (aged between 3-14) under non-formal education at Rohingya camps.
Besides, the organisation is working for 3,759 children of the host community, he said, adding that the government and BRAC can work jointly on innovation by utilising BRAC’s experiences.
Ataur said, the government will provide necessary support regarding the innovation and enhancing the capacity of education employees.
Earlier, the DG visited the BRAC Learning Centre at No 15 and 16 Rohingya camps where he talked to Rohingya children, studying from level 1-4, their parents, guardians and teachers, the release said.
HCMP Sector Lead Khan Mohammad Frdous said that BRAC so far brought 73,182 children of both Rohingya and host communities under non-formal education. BRAC’s target is to bring one lakh children of disadvantaged people under such education through 1000 centres in the days to come.
DHAKA, Bangladesh – Bangladesh intends to transfer more than 80,000 Rohingya refugees to a distant island in the Bay of Bengal after making a deal with the United Nations to provide help, officials said Friday.
The Bangladesh government has relocated nearly 19,000 Muslim refugees, members of a persecuted chiefly Muslim minority from Myanmar, from over-crowded border camps on the mainland to Bhashan Char island, despite protests by refugees and opposition parties and the doubts raised by the aid groups, officials said.
Shah Rezwan Hayat, the Bangladesh refugee commissioner, informed AFP, “We are aiming to relocate some 81,000 (Rohingya) to Bhashan Char by the end of February to complete the 100,000 quota.”
More than a million Rohingya are crammed into camps along the Myanmar- Bangladesh border after fleeing Myanmar military clampdown in 2017, including mass killings and gang rapes. The United Nations said it was possibly a genocide.
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The UN’s refugee agency (UNHCR) is facing questions over whether it is helping to detain Rohingya refugees in prison-like conditions by providing services on a controversial island camp.
Over the past year, Bangladesh has relocated almost 20,000 refugees to Bhasan Char, an island formed of silt deposits in the Bay of Bengal thought to be vulnerable to cyclones, which the refugees are unable to leave.
Bangladesh has been praised for bringing in the refugees who poured across the border despite being not a signatory to the 1951 Refugee Convention to confer refugee status on the group.
Rohingya resist the forced relocation, citing it as imprisonment on the island with harsher weather conditions and a ban to return to the mainland, 60 kilometers away, where their relatives live in the camps.
Several hundred Rohingya fled the Bhashan Char termed ‘refugee prison” by the unhappy refugees, but they were caught and detained on other islands or in coastal villages. Dozens died after an over-crowded fishing boat stuffed with Rohingya trying to flee the island went down in August.
The UN’s refugee agency (UNHCR) is facing questions over whether it is helping to detain Rohingya refugees in prison-like conditions by providing services on a controversial island camp.
Over the past year, Bangladesh has relocated almost 20,000 refugees to Bhasan Char, an island formed of silt deposits in the Bay of Bengal thought to be vulnerable to cyclones, which the refugees are unable to leave.
About 700 refugees have reportedly attempted to flee the island but Bangladesh hopes that the UNHCR’s cooperation will ensure better services for the refugees and is now planning to increase the island’s population by 80,000 over the next three months.
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Refugees International, a global advocacy organisation, said there were “serious questions” about whether it was safe and possible to move such numbers to the island from the Cox’s Bazar refugee camps, which are the world’s largest, hosting about 890,000 refugees.
“Most concerning is whether any relocations of Rohingya refugees to the island will be truly voluntary, evidenced by the fact that hundreds of refugees relocated there have already tried to flee,” said Daniel Sullivan, Refugees International’s senior advocate for human rights.
“As Refugees International has warned in the past, failure to properly assess conditions and inform refugees about the move will result in policies more akin to detention than refuge.”
The Geneva-based Global Detention Project tweeted: “In signing a new memorandum of understanding with the Bangladesh government, is the UNHCR assisting in the detention of Rohingya refugees on Bhasan Char island? Are refugees free to move on and off the island? Are they moving there truly voluntarily?”
Members of 15 families of slain Rohingya leader Mohibullah’s relatives have been taken to a safe shelter due to security reasons.
Members of six families were taken to a centre on Thursday (October 14). Members of nine families will be taken to a centre.
Commander of 14 Armed Police Battalion Police Super Naimul Haq confirmed the news on Friday night.
Earlier, Rohingya leader’s family members requested immediate relocation to a safe shelter from the Rohingya camp first, before being moved to a third country.
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The team of professionals are formally known as the Independent Investigative Mechanism for Myanmar, (IIMM) or Myanmar Mechanism, and was created in 2018 by the Human Rights Council.Working out of Geneva, there are experts in gender violence and crimes against children; analysts with experience in international justice; specialists in open source evidence; and investigators working with sophisticated information systems.
The Mechanism was established after an Independent International Fact-Finding Mission found “clear patterns” of violations by the military, known as the Tatmadaw, and insisted that the perpetrators of the “gross human rights violations”, including those against the Rohingya, must not go unpunished.
The IIMM is not a court, neither does it have the power to prosecute. The hope is that all the information that could otherwise be lost, is preserved, and then shared with national, regional or international courts.
“Crime scenes get disturbed, bodies decompose, wounds can heal, people’s memories can fade, witnesses with information can pass away”, he explains. “So it’s very important to collect the information while you can.”
Insider sources said the late Rohingya leader’s dear ones and acquaintances were seeking safety and security as they had been receiving death threats. Mohibullah, chairman of the Arakan Rohingya Society for Peace and Human Rights, was shot to death by miscreants at Lombashia East-West Camp in Ukhia of Cox’s Bazar.
The team of professionals are formally known as the Independent Investigative Mechanism for Myanmar, (IIMM) or Myanmar Mechanism, and was created in 2018 by the Human Rights Council.Working out of Geneva, there are experts in gender violence and crimes against children; analysts with experience in international justice; specialists in open source evidence; and investigators working with sophisticated information systems.
The Mechanism was established after an Independent International Fact-Finding Mission found “clear patterns” of violations by the military, known as the Tatmadaw, and insisted that the perpetrators of the “gross human rights violations”, including those against the Rohingya, must not go unpunished.
The IIMM is not a court, neither does it have the power to prosecute. The hope is that all the information that could otherwise be lost, is preserved, and then shared with national, regional or international courts.
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In an extensive interview with UN News, the head of the Mechanism, Nicholas Koumjian, explains the importance of preserving this evidence before it is potentially lost.
“Crime scenes get disturbed, bodies decompose, wounds can heal, people’s memories can fade, witnesses with information can pass away”, he explains. “So it’s very important to collect the information while you can.”
The interview has been edited for clarity and length.
We started two years ago, in July of 2019, and we’ve been building up the Mechanism, acquiring all of the expertise that we believe would be necessary.
We have those with expertise in International Criminal law, in things like gender violence, investigation of crimes against children, investigation of sexual assaults, analysts with experience in very complex international cases.
We have those with experience in using open source evidence and very sophisticated and secure information systems, so that the information that we collect and preserve, is held confidentially and no one has access to it, and that also allows us to analyse the very vast quantities of data that we have collected.
A deal for the UN to start work on a remote Bangladeshi island where the government has sent thousands of Rohingya refugees offers no guarantee they will be allowed to move freely to the mainland, according to a copy of the agreement.
The Bangladesh government has moved nearly 19,000 Rohingya refugees, members of a persecuted mostly Muslim minority from Myanmar, to Bhasan Char island from border camps, despite protests by refugees and opposition from rights groups, who have likened it to an island jail and said some relocations were involuntary.Refugees have called for freedom of movement between the remote and flood-prone island, several hours off the coast, and the sprawling mainland camps near the port town of Cox’s Bazar, while dozens have died in recent months attempting to flee on rickety boats.
The UN refugee agency, which had previously refused to provide humanitarian services on Bhasan Char until assessments were completed, did not respond to request for comment on why the deal, signed in early October, had not been made public or its contents.
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In an October 9 statement, the agency said the agreement covered “key areas of protection, education, skills-training, livelihoods and health, which will help support the refugees to lead decent lives on the island and better prepare them for sustainable return to Myanmar in the future”.
Bangladesh government officials could not immediately be reached for comment.
A leaked copy of the deal seen by Reuters news agency says the UN would be “permitted unhindered access” to the population and further relocations would be voluntary.
But it says any travel between the island and mainland would be on an “as needs” basis, the precise details of which would be determined between the United Nations and Bangladesh.They can “move on and within Bhasan Char for their daily activities”, it says.
WASHINGTON —
Facebook was used to spread disinformation about the Rohingya, the Muslim ethnic minority in Myanmar, and in 2018 the company began to delete posts, accounts and other content it determined were part of a campaign to incite violence.
That deleted but stored data is at issue in a case in the United States over whether Facebook should release the information as part of a claim in international court.
Facebook this week objected to part of a U.S. magistrate judge’s order that could have an impact on how much data internet companies must turn over to investigators examining the role social media played in a variety of international incidents, from the 2017 Rohingya genocide in Myanmar to the 2021 Capitol riot in Washington.
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The judge ruled last month that Facebook had to give information about these deleted accounts to Gambia, the West African nation, which is pursuing a case in the International Court of Justice against Myanmar, seeking to hold the Asian nation responsible for the crime of genocide against the Rohingya.
But in its filing Wednesday, Facebook said the judge’s order “creates grave human rights concerns of its own, leaving internet users’ private content unprotected and thereby susceptible to disclosure — at a provider’s whim — to private litigants, foreign governments, law enforcement, or anyone else.”
The company said it was not challenging the order when it comes to public information from the accounts, groups and pages it has preserved. It objects to providing “non-public information.” If the order is allowed to stand, it would “impair critical privacy and freedom of expression rights for internet users — not just Facebook users — worldwide, including Americans,” the company said.Facebook has argued that providing the deleted posts is in violation of U.S. privacy, citing the Stored Communications Act, the 35-year-old law that established privacy protections in electronic communication.
