The United Nations is set to sign an agreement with Bangladesh next Saturday on humanitarian assistance to the Rohingya evacuated from Cox’s Bazar to Bhasanchar. Disaster Management and Relief Secretary. Mohsin gave this information in the first light on Wednesday.
To reduce the pressure on the Rohingya camp in Cox’s Bazar, the government decided to evacuate one lakh Rohingyas to Bhasanchar. Following this, the evacuation of Rohingyas to Bhasanchar started in December last year. The government has so far provided humanitarian assistance to the displaced Rohingyas in Bhasanchar with its own funding and the help of local and foreign aid agencies.
The UN has opposed the evacuation of Rohingyas in Bhasanchar from the very beginning. The UN had questions about how risk-free Bhasanchar was during natural disasters, whether Rohingyas were allowed to move freely from Bhasanchar to the mainland of Bangladesh, whether they were taken to Bhasanchar voluntarily.
The government sent a technical team to Cox’s Bazar to continue the relocation of Rohingyas to Bhasanchar. Recently, two Assistant High Commissioners of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) visited Bhasanchar after diplomats from various countries, including the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) and the West, visited Dhaka. After these visits, the delegation including the UN technical team showed a positive attitude towards Bhasanchar.
Then, at the end of last July, the officials of the World Organization had a meeting with the officials of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Bhasanchar on the issues of how the UN will work in different fields. In Bhasanchar, discussions were held on various issues related to Rohingya education, health, livelihood programs, travel and the work of the United Nations. At that time, the concerned officials of the ministry told Prothom Alo that the educational activities of the Rohingyas in Bhasanchar would be conducted in the language of Myanmar and according to the curriculum of that country. In other words, it has been taken into consideration so that the Rohingyas can return to Rakhine and adapt to the education system there.
Regarding the type of livelihood program for the Rohingya in Bhasanchar, officials said Myanmar, meaning the situation in Rakhine, was also taken into account in jobs such as education. Considering the fact that the Rohingyas in Bhasanchar have not adapted to the situation in Bangladesh and adapted to their aborigines without considering them for livelihood.
Since the evacuation of Rohingyas from Cox’s Bazar on December 4 last year, 16,521 Rohingyas from Myanmar have been taken to Bhasanchar in six phases. Among them, the number of children, women and men is 6,690, 5,319 and 4,409 respectively.
Commodore M Rashed Sattar, director of the Asrayan-3 project, had earlier told Prothom Alo that after the end of the monsoon season, the work of evacuating the remaining one lakh Rohingyas from Cox’s Bazar to Bhasanchar would resume.
