'It's not a concentration camp': Bangladesh defends plan to house Rohingya on island with armed police

However, one of her advisers said thatonce there,they would only be able to leave the island if they wanted to goback to Myanmar or were selected for asylum by a third country.

I would rather die right here.- JahidHussain, Rohingyarefugee

"It's not a concentration camp, but there may be somerestrictions. We are not giving them a Bangladeshi passport or
ID card," said Hossain ToufiqueImam, adding that the island would have apolice encampment with 40-50 armed personnel.

Relocation could be decided on lottery basis

British and Chinese engineers are helping prepare the islandto receive refugees before the onset of monsoon rains, whichcould bring disastrous flooding to ramshackle camps furthersouth that now teem with about one million Rohingya. The rainscould start as early as late April.

Hasina's adviser, Imam, said the question of selectingRohingya in Cox's Bazar to move to the island was not finalized,
but it could be decided by lottery or on a volunteer basis.

The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees said in astatement: "We would emphasize that any relocation planinvolving refugees would need to be based on and implementedthrough voluntary and informed decisions."

Rohingya refugee crisis: Nahlah Ayed's reporter's notebook

7 years ago

Duration 5:50

The refugee camps on the Bangladesh-Myanmar border contain thousands of Rohingya Muslims fleeing violence. CBC's Nahlah Ayed talks about her experiences reporting about the Rohingya refugee crisis and countless harrowing stories she heard from survivors

Humanitarian agencies criticized the plan to bring Rohingyato the island when it was first proposed in 2015. Aid workers
who spoke to Reuters said they remain seriously concerned thatthe silt island is vulnerable to frequent cyclones and cannotsustain livelihoods for thousands of people.

But work on the project has accelerated in recent months,according to architectural plans and two letters from the
Bangladesh navy to local government officials and contractorsseen by Reuters.

British, Chinese helping

A year ago, when Reuters journalists visited Bhasan Char whose name means "floating island" there were no roads,buildings or people.

Floating Island, which emerged from the silt only about 20years ago, is about 30 kilometresfrom the mainland. Flat andshape-shifting, it regularly floods during June-September.Pirates roam the nearby waters to kidnap fishermen for ransom,residents of nearby islands say.

The plans show metal-roofed, brick buildings raised onpylons and fitted with solar panels. There will be 1,440 blocks,
each housing 16 families.

Chinese construction company Sinohydro better known forbuilding China's Three Gorges Dam has begun work on a 13-kilometre flood-defence embankment for the $280-million project.

A Sinohydro engineer on Bhasan Char, reached by telephone later, said the company had "confidentiality agreements" andthat questions about construction on the island should bereferred to the Bangladesh government.

HR Wallingford, a British engineering and environmentalhydraulics consultancy, is advising the project on "coastal
stabilization and flood protection measures," the companytoldReuters in a statement earlier this month.

"The coastal infrastructure design is expected to include aflood defence embankment protecting the development area tointernational standards, set back from the shoreline," it said.The company referred further inquiries to the Bangladesh Navy.

Monsoons in area

Omar Waraich, deputy South Asia director for rights groupAmnesty International, said there was "no one in the
humanitarian community we spoke to who thought this was a goodidea".

"This is a silt island that only emerged into viewrecently," he said.

Residents of nearby Sandwip island, which is larger and lessremote, say monsoon storms regularly kill people, destroy homesand cut contact with the mainland.

The government was building cyclone shelters on the island,he said, adding that there were salt-tolerant paddies and peopleliving there could fish or graze cows and buffalo.

Anwar also dismissed concerns about delivering basic aid to the island.

"We don't need help from any foreign NGOs or local NGOs. Wecan feed them," he said.

Bangladeshis living on nearby islands are critical of theirgovernment's efforts for the Rohingya.

Farther from home

Belal Beg, 80, who was born on Sandwip island, said therewas resistance to settling Rohingya on Bhasan Char because hugenumbers of Bangladeshis are displaced by coastal erosion each year with no measures taken to protect them.

"We should first care for our own people but the governmentis deciding to give shelter to immigrants," Beg said

Many Rohingya also reject the idea of moving to an islandeven further from Myanmar, which many of them have called homefor generations.

Jahid Hussain, a Rohingya refugee at Chakmakul refugee camp in Bangladesh, said he had fled Myanmar to save his life andwould not risk it by living on Bhasan Char.

The latest unrest in Myanmar's Rakhine state began in late August, when Rohingya insurgents attacked dozens of police posts andan army base, prompting an army counter-offensive that forcedentire villages to flee. They joined about 300,000 Rohingyaalready in Bangladesh, one of the world's poorest and mostcrowded nations, who had fled previous bouts of violence.

Aung San Suu Kyi, Nobel peace laureate and leader ofBuddhist-majority Myanmar, has been heavily criticized by
Western nations for not speaking out against what the UnitedStates and the United Nations have branded ethnic cleansing.

Myanmar denies that ethnic cleansing has taken place andsays it has been conducting legitimate operations against
terrorists in northern Rakhine.

Describing the island, Hasina told a news conference inDhaka that "from a natural point of view, it is very nice" andsaid although the initial plan was to put 100,000 people there,it had room for as many as a million.