Bhashan Char Island- Key Facts

The Bangladesh Authorities recently moved around 1,750 Rohingya Muslims to a controversial island in the Bay of Bengal called the “Bhashan Char Island”. This move by Bangladesh was opposed by the refugees already living on the island.

About Bhashan Char

The island is also known as Char Piya. It is in Hatiya Upazila, Bangladesh. The island is located in the Bay of Bengal at about 6 kilometres from Sandwip island and 60 kilometres from the mainland. It has an area of 40 square kilometres.

How the island was formed?

The island was formed in the year 2006 by Himalayan silt.

Recent development by Bangladesh on Island

• The Government of Bangladesh have planned to construct 1,440 buildings on the island.
• The building will also include 120 cyclone shelters.
• The buildings were constructed with the objective of relocating the 100,000 Rohingya refugees from the mainland camps of Cox’s Bazar.
• Recently, in August 2019, Ashrayan Project (Ashrayan-3) was expended to build 100,000 homes on the island.

Cox’s Bazar

It is a city, fishing port, tourism centre and district headquarters of the southern Bangladesh. This city is famous for long natural sandy beach. It is also known as the Panowa.

Sandwip island

It is an island along the south-eastern coast of Bangladesh in Chittagong District. The island is a part of Sandwip Upazila.

Rohingya people

They are a stateless Indo-Aryan ethnic group who follow Islam. They reside in the Rakhine State of Myanmar. Around 1.4 million Rohingyas lived in Myanmar until a displacement crisis of 2017 when 740,000 fled to Bangladesh. They are called as the most persecuted minorities in the world. They are denied citizenship under the 1982 Myanmar nationality law.  They do not have the freedom of movement, state education and civil service jobs in Myanmar.

Month: Current Affairs - February, 2021