Some 250,000 Rohingya refugees receive first ID cards: UN

Date created : 17/05/2019 - 17:26  GMT/ZULU

Some 740,000 Rohingya refugees fled a Myanmar military crackdown in August 2017 AFP/File

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Geneva 

by Isabelle Roussel and Biodun Iginla, France24

The UN said Friday it has registered more than 250,000 Rohingya refugees in Bangladesh, providing many with their first ever identification cards and proof of their right to return to Myanmar in the future.

The UN refugee agency also said the registration could serve as a tool for law enforcement to help counter human trafficking.

"Over a quarter of a million Rohingya refugees from Myanmar have now been jointly registered and provided with identity cards by Bangladesh authorities and UNHCR," spokesman Andrej Mahecic told reporters in Geneva.

Some 740,000 Rohingya refugees fled a military crackdown in August 2017 to cross into Bangladesh where 300,000 members of the persecuted Muslim minority were already in camps.

Many Rohingya refugees who fled said there had been mass rapes and slaughters in the villages, and in a report published last September, the fact-finding mission said there were reasonable grounds to believe the atrocities amounted to "genocide".

UNHCR puts the number of Rohingya refugees currently crowded into settlements in Cox's Bazar at around 900,000, although the UN often gives a lower number than Bangladesh authorities and other aid organisations.

They are stateless, despite the fact that many of their families have lived in Myanmar for generations, since members of the Muslim minority have had their citizenship eroded over decades.

"The registration exercise, which began in June 2018, is about safeguarding the right of Rohingya refugees to be able to return home voluntarily to Myanmar in future," Mahecic said.

Myanmar and Bangladesh have signed a memorandum of understanding about repatriating the Rohingya, but so far safety fears and concerns over citizenship mean the refugees have refused to return.

The new ID cards, provided to all refugees over the age of 12, lists important information, including names, family links and fingerprints and Iris scans.

Mahecic also said that the cards list Myanmar as the refugees' country of origin.

In total, 270,348 refugees, or nearly 60,000 families, have been registered, and around 4,000 people are added to the roster each day, he said.

UNHCR's goal is to complete the process of registering all the Rohingya in Cox's Bazar by November.

Mahecic pointed out that comprehensive registration is important for improving the accuracy of data on refugees in Bangladesh, and provides authorities and humanitarians with a better understanding of the population and its needs.

He also said that the registration "can also serve as a better tool vis-a-vis the authorities to prevent and combat smuggling and trafficking".

His comment came after a rise in attempted human smuggling of Rohingya in the last few months, amid growing desperation in the camps.

Earlier this week, Bangladeshi police shot dead two suspected Rohingya human traffickers, after rescuing 103 refugees in two days about to make the perilous sea voyage to Malaysia.

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Bangladesh to move Rohingya to island next month: minister

Date created : 13/03/2019 - 18:33  GMT/ZULU

Nearly one million Rohingya refugees are living along the border between Bangladesh and Myanmar, and Dhaka is hoping to shift 100,000 to Bhashan Char island AFP/File

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Dhaka

by Sunita Kureishi and Biodun Iginla, France24

Bangladesh said Wednesday it would start relocating tens of thousands of Rohingya Muslims from overcrowded camps to a remote island vulnerable to extreme weather, despite the plan attracting considerable controversy.

Shelters and flood walls have been constructed on Bhashan Char, a muddy silt islet that only rose from the Bay of Bengal in 2006, in the hope of shifting 100,000 Rohingya refugees there.

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Bangladesh has been talking about the island for years and the plan to relocate some of the nearly one million Rohingya refugees living along its border with Myanmar has stalled many times.

The proposal to uproot the refugees remains unpopular among the Rohingya community and critics have raised concerns about the island's ability to withstand violent storms during the monsoon.

But Mozammel Huq, the head of Bangladesh's cabinet committee on law and order and a senior government minister, said the relocation would proceed as planned.

"We plan to start the process next month, as construction at Bhashan Char is now complete," he told AFP.

Kamal Hossain, the government administrator of Cox's Bazar district where the vast Rohingya camps are located, told us at France24 that they were "preparing a list of refugees who would voluntarily go to the island".

- "New crisis" -

The island is one hour by boat from the nearest land and experts said it was too risky to house the refugees on the island as it is prone to flooding during storm surge.

Hundreds of thousands have died in Bangladesh from cyclones in the last 50 years, mostly in coastal areas.

Local officials have pointed to a newly-constructed three-metre (nine-feet) high embankment around the island they say will keep out tidal surges in the event of a cyclone.

But a top UN rights expert in January warned moving the refugees there could spark a "new crisis" for the persecuted Muslim minority.

Huq said the UN "should concentrate on the welfare of the Rohingya instead".

"It is up to Bangladesh to decide where we will keep the refugees," he said.

Aid groups have warned the refugees crammed into the world's largest refugee camp in Cox's Bazar are at risk of landslides, disease and floods.

The Rohingya fled Myanmar by droves in 2017 into Bangladesh, escaping a military-led crackdown the UN has said could amount to genocide.

An official from the International Criminal Court who visited the Rohingya camps this week said those responsible for their persecution would be held to account, despite Myanmar not being a signatory to the Hague-based court.

US ambassador Earl Miller met with Bangladesh government officials on Tuesday in Cox?s Bazar to "learn more" about the island relocation.

"He welcomed assurances that any movements to the island will be fully voluntary, based on informed consent, and those who choose to go will have free movement off the island to maintain connections with the rest of the Rohingya community in Cox?s Bazar," a statement from the US embassy said.