A protest by a whole bunch of Rohingya turned violent on Monday as senior U.N. officers visited a distant and low-lying island the place Bangladesh is housing greater than 18,000 of the stateless refugees from Myanmar, police stated.
Accidents had been reported as police and protesters clashed whereas a delegation of high-ranking officers from UNHCR, the United Nations refugee company, was visiting Bhashan Char Island after arriving from mainland Bangladesh, authorities and refugee-community leaders stated.
Police advised BenarNews that between 500 and 600 individuals took half in Monday’s protest, by which refugees vented anger about their dwelling situations and being confined to the offshore advanced, which the federal government constructed specifically for the Rohingya. However Mohammad Jubair, a refugee chief on the island, stated as many as 4,000 individuals joined the protest.
“A gaggle of dangerous Rohingya individuals sparked the protest within the presence of the UNHCR officers. They tried to create chaos. They vandalized a authorities workplace, a motorbike and a few retailers,” Mahe Alam, the officer-in-charge on the Bhashan Char police station, advised BenarNews.
“We are going to determine the perpetrators and take authorized actions according to the choice of the authorities.”
In keeping with Md Alamgir Hossain, the police chief of surrounding Noakhali district, a crowd of Rohingya refugees tried to strategy the guests from UNHCR as a helicopter carrying them and authorities officers landed at round 10 a.m.
“For security causes, the police intervened, and the violent Rohingya threw brickbats at them. A minimum of 4 policemen had minor accidents. However we didn’t use pressure on the Rohingya. They retreated as we satisfied them not to enter violence,” he stated.
In keeping with Rohingya refugees, police charged with their batons on the protesters.
“Later, the UNHCR officers had talks with the Rohingya refugees and left the island on a helicopter at round 3 p.m. for Cox’s Bazar,” Hossain stated, referring to the southeastern district the place round 1 million Rohingya Muslim refugees are sheltering after fleeing from violence and persecution subsequent door in Myanmar’s Rakhine state.
The 2 UNHCR officers, Assistant Excessive Commissioner for Operations Raouf Mazou and Assistant Excessive Commissioner for Safety Gillian Triggs, had been visiting the island after arriving in Dhaka on Sunday for a four-day go to to Bangladesh. They’re the senior-most officers from the Geneva-based U.N. company to go to Bhashan Char to this point.
“[W]e are deeply involved to study of studies of refugees who’ve been injured throughout right this moment’s occasions on the island. We remorse that these affected reportedly embody youngsters and ladies,” Louise Donovan, a spokeswoman for the Dhaka workplace of UNHCR, stated in a press release issued late Monday.
“The protection and wellbeing of refugees is our essential precedence and we proceed to urgently search further info on the situation of these affected and urge that they obtain ample medical help,” she advised BenarNews.
Throughout Monday’s go to to Bhashan Char, the UNHCR delegation “was capable of meet with a big group of refugees and to hearken to the assorted points that they raised, which the delegation will additional focus on with the Bangladesh authorities,” she added.
The assistant excessive commissioners travelled on to Cox’s Bazar, the place they had been scheduled to go to Rohingya camps on Tuesday earlier than returning to Dhaka to fulfill with senior authorities officers, Donovan stated.
Since final December, Bangladeshi authorities have been relocating massive batches of refugees to Bhashan Char from Cox’s Bazar, claiming that Rohingya are doing so voluntarily and that is wanted to ease overcrowding and scale back crime within the congested and squalid camps on the mainland.
On Monday, a number of hundred refugees assembled to protest, stated Mohammad Sohel, a Rohingya chief on Bhashan Char.
“The agitated Rohingya threw brickbats on the police and vandalized a authorities warehouse. I heard that some individuals had been injured,” he advised BenarNews by cellphone from the island.
“The Rohingya individuals deliberate to fulfill the UNHCR officers to allow them to find out about their issues in Bhashan Char, however the police obstructed us,” stated Nurul Islam, one other Rohingya chief.
“The aggrieved Rohingya didn’t get the possibility to speak to the UNHCR officers. One other group of Rohingya got the possibility to speak to the UNHCR officers,” he advised BenarNews, an RFA-affiliated on-line information service.
Mohammad Jubair was amongst refugee-community leaders who participated within the assembly with the U.N. officers.
The UNHCR delegates requested the refugees if they might be prepared to proceed dwelling on the island if the U.N. company started operations on Bhashan Char, he stated.
“However the Rohingya refugees advised them they didn’t wish to reside on Bhashan Char,” Jubair advised BenarNews.
The United Nations has not formally began operations there.
In March, a UNHCR staff visited Bhashan Char for the primary time. In mid-April, the company urged Bangladesh to decelerate its program to maneuver refugees from the mainland to Bhashan Char as a result of, UNHCR stated, measures to guard residents from storms and flooding weren’t absolutely in place.
Reported by BenarNews, an RFA-affiliated on-line information service.