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Rohingya Complain of Treatment on Remote Bangladeshi Island

Shaikh Azizur Rahman

   Frustration is boiling over among several hundred Rohingya refugees
   being held in prison-like conditions on the remote Bangladeshi island
   of Bhasan Char, where they say they were beaten by authorities in
   response to a recent hunger strike.

   "They said that they would keep us in this island for 14 days," said
   one of the refugees, who told VOA that she and the others want to be
   reunited with their families in the refugee camps around Cox's Bazar in
   southeastern Bangladesh.

   "Now it has been five months that we have been detained here,"
   continued the woman, who asked not to be identified for fear of
   reprisal from Bangladeshi authorities. She said in a telephone
   interview that some women on the island have even tried to commit
   suicide by drowning or hanging themselves.

   Another Rohingya man told VOA that naval and police officers responded
   to the three-day hunger strike by beating the refugees, a charge that
   is also being made by the advocacy group Human Rights Watch.

   "They beat up our women and children, too. Later we withdrew the hunger
   strike after some officers said that we would be allowed to return to
   our camps within 15 days. We will begin a hunger strike again if they
   do not take us to our camps within 15 days," said the man, who also
   asked that his name not be used.

   In a [1]report published Thursday, Human Rights Watch charged that the
   hunger-striking refugees were beaten with sticks and tree branches by
   Bangladesh navy officers.

References

   1. https://www.hrw.org/news/2020/10/01/bangladesh-protesting-rohingya-refugees-beaten

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