Agreement with the United Nations on Bhasanchar today

The Bangladesh government and the United Nations will agree to provide humanitarian assistance to the Rohingya in Bhasanchar. The Ministry of Disaster Management and Relief and the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) will sign a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) on Saturday (October 9).

Disaster Management and Relief Ministry Senior Information Officer. Selim Hossain said the agreement would be signed at the Ministry of Disaster Management and Relief at noon on Saturday. The agreement will be signed by the Secretary of the Ministry of Disaster Management and Relief on behalf of Bangladesh and the Country Director of UNHCR on behalf of the United Nations.

At the end of July this year, Bangladesh signed a draft agreement with the United Nations on humanitarian assistance to the Rohingya in Bhasanchar. Bangladesh had hoped that if the agreement was finalized in early August, the UN would start working at the field level from September. However, despite some delay, the UN is finally going to join Bhasanchar.

The United Nations objected to refugees’ relocation from the Rohingya camps in Cox’s Bazar to Bhasanchar. However, on March 17, a 16-member UN delegation visited the Rohingyas in Bhasanchar on a three-day visit. UN officials who visited Bhasanchar about a month later said they had a favorable view of Bhasanchar. In other words, the company agreed to be involved in humanitarian assistance in Bhasanchar.

A delegation from the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) first visited the Rohingya relocated to Bhasanchar in February this year. Last month, ten foreign ambassadors to Dhaka visited the Rohingyas in Bhasanchar. At the end of the visit, the diplomats from the donor groups also expressed their positive views on Bhasanchar.

The Bangladesh government has prepared Bhasanchar at the cost of Tk 2,312 crore to evacuate one lakh Rohingyas from the Cox’s Bazar camp to safer shelters. Even a couple of years ago, it was impossible to relocate Rohingyas to Bhasanchar due to international sanctions.

However, since December last year, despite the reluctance of the United Nations, the government started the process of relocating 1,642 Rohingyas to Bhasanchar. So far, 16,521 Rohingyas have been taken to Bhasanchar in six phases.