Foreign Minister AK Abdul Momen has said the relocation of Rohingya refugees to Bhasan Char will have no negative impact on repatriation efforts.
"We’ve made this arrangement for a short period. Maybe these people will get back to Myanmar in the first batch when Myanmar will start taking back Rohingyas from Bangladesh," he told reporters on Monday, reports UNB.
The minister said the United Nations should help Rohingyas in Bhasan Char following the mandate on the basis of which the UN works in Bangladesh.
Momen said the UN should not think of whether the Rohingyas are living in Kutupalong, Bhasan Char or somewhere else. "It's their mandate to help them (refugees). They should do it."
He said the government is currently providing food assistance to Rohingyas in Bhasan Char but hoped that the UN will come forward to its agencies to help Rohingyas.
Responding to a question over 300 Rohingyas rescued from the sea, Momen said Bangladesh saved their lives when no country came forward.
"They were dying. Nobody did accept them," he said adding their all eight neighbouring countries had equal responsibility to save those floating Rohingyas.
Bangladesh is hosting over 1.1 million Rohingyas in Cox's Bazar, and majority of them entered Bangladesh after August 25, 2017, amid military crackdowns against Rohingyas by the Myanmar security forces.
In the face of growing concern over the extreme congestion in the camps of Cox’s Bazar and to avert any risk of death due to landslides and other unwarranted incidents, the government has decided to relocate, in phases, 1,00,000 Rohingyas to Bhashan Char in Noakhali.
The government invested more than US$ 350.00 million to develop the island.
Accordingly, in the first phase, more than 1600 Rohingyas, who expressed their willingness voluntarily for relocation, were shifted to Bhashan Char on December 4.