The Kutupalong refugee camp in Cox’s Bazar, Bangladesh, this month. The United Nations has called the Rohingya, a Muslim ethnic group denied citizenship in Myanmar, the most persecuted minority in the world. Credit Allison Joyce/Getty Images
DHAKA, Bangladesh — Bangladesh’s government is moving forward with a plan to relocate Rohingya refugees staying in camps near the country’s largest tourist resort towns to a remote island that is underwater for much of the year.
A cabinet order on Thursday directed officials to have the refugees transferred to Thengar Char, an island in the Bay of Bengal that is lashed by high tides year round and submerged during the monsoon season. The suggestion that they be moved to the largely uninhabitable marshland several hours by boat from the mainland drew criticism from around the world.
The relocation plan was last proposed in 2015, but the government quietly suspended it after criticism from international aid groups and rights activists. Its reinstatement follows the arrival of about 65,000 Rohingya from Myanmar in October and November, after a crackdown by Myanmar’s army and attacks on security forces by Islamic insurgents.
The United Nations has called the Rohingya, a Muslim ethnic group denied citizenship in Myanmar, the world’s most persecuted minority. John McKissick, head of the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees in the Bangladeshi city of Cox’s Bazar, near the Burmese border, said in November that Myanmar’s government was trying to achieve an “ultimate goal of ethnic cleansing of the Muslim minority.”
Since 1992, about 32,000 registered Rohingya have been living in two United Nations camps near Cox’s Bazar, but estimates of unregistered refugees range from 200,000 to 500,000. Many of them live in two sprawling makeshift shelters close to the official camps, while others are scattered across southeast Bangladesh.
Categories: Asia, Bangladesh, Ethnic cleansing, Ethnic discrimination, Human rights, Immigration, Immigration policy, Islam, Islamophobia, Myanmar, Politics, Religion, Religious discrimination, Religious persecution, War crimes, World news
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I can not imagine how the world views America now. This is cruel, shameful and irresponsible. American citizens are being over whelmed with bad news and poor decisions. Horrible decisions like dropping troops into a trap where children, women and solders were killed. Treating our allies like trash yet not saying a word about Putin. All of Trump’s Pay to Play deals. Giving CEO’s high level government jobs. Telling our scientist that they are not allowed to share or release any climate change data. The way we are treating immigrants and different religions. The list is so long and ugly.
I think Trump is trying to overwhelm us in an attempt to keep us from seeing the bigger picture. It is clear he is making us less safe. Wish I was smart enough to know what this administration is really up too. Most say it is a corporate takeover of America. I feel over loaded and ashamed.
The good news, I am impressed by the number of protests happening all over the US. The daily protests make the tea party look comical and small. I will admit that I am afraid for our future survival. The country feels more divided than ever before but people are getting involved and fighting for the rights of others.. .
For those interested in teaming up with other local citizens to protest and make their voice heard, there is a website that helps connect concerned citizens. You can even create your own group and organize events, town hall meetings and protests. Apparently, it is growing rapidly from the bottom up.
https://www.indivisibleguide.com/
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I think the world has come to view us more favorably. The America that they have heard about is real. It is a place where most people still believe in freedom and equality and fairness. We have never been a better role model for what a great nation can be than we are right now.
Fortunately, in our great democracy, presidents aren’t emperors, and executive orders only apply to government agencies and the policies that they enforce but do not have the force of law. Only Congress or a large majority of the states can alter our constitution, and the Founders made doing so extremely difficult by design.
You are right. We are witnessing an attempt by corporate America to capitalize–no pun intended–on a weak executive in the White House. It is no accident that they have always enthusiastically supported Republican candidates who are mentally challenged, because they are easy to manipulate.
The litany of recent conservative leaders with poop for brains began with Reagan–who honestly didn’t remember who did what during his administration–continued with Dan Quayle, who could be beaten up in an intellectual contest by a 9-year-old, and was followed by the election of George W. Bush, a pretend cowboy afraid of horses who couldn’t utter a grammatical sentence if our lives had depended upon it, which it turns out, they had.
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This is a story worth thinking about. These poor Muslims are facing what is tantamount to genocide. Who speaks for them? Where are the good Christians, Buddhists, Hindus and Muslims? It is shameful.
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