Rohingya Refugees beaten for Hunger Strike

By The Rohingya Post

On September 23, Bangladesh Navy officers have beaten Rohingya refugees who are on the hunger strike on Bhasan Char island.

The refugees who began the hunger strike on September 22, want to reunite with the family members living in refugee camps in Cox’s Bazar.

Over 300 Rohingya refugees were rescued from the seas after being stranded on boats for months upon failing to reach Malaysia, and were transferred to Bhasan Char situated in the Bay of Bengal for a period of 14 days.

However, the refugees have been on the island for more than 6 months, without knowing when they will reunite with the families. They also express the traumatising experience of living on the isolated island.
The Rohingya refugees expressed gratitude to Bangladesh’s Prime Minister for rescuing them and sheltering after fleeing the genocide in Myanmar.

The only demand of the refugees on the island, is to return to the mainland in Cox’s Bazar district where a million Rohingya refugees taking shelter.

Bhasan Char is formed from a silt in the Bay of Bengal in 2006. Bangladesh has commissioned in building shelters for over 100,000 Rohingya refugees intended to be relocated from refugee camps in Cox’s Bazar.

The plan of relocation of Rohingya refugees to the cyclone-prone island was condemned by rights groups for the lack of accessibility, vegetations and proper cyclone-proof shelters, and the groups have also expressed concerns of the relocation becoming permanent for the already traumatised survivors of genocide.