The team of the United Nations who had visited Bhasan Char island - the new site for the relocation of 100,000 Rohingya refugees - has expressed its satisfaction with the facilities developed by the Bangladesh government. Initially, the government had faced criticism for its relocation plan. 

“Overall, (the) UN is positive about Bhasan Char,” The Daily Star quoted a diplomatic source as saying. A team of 18 members, including Fumiko Kashiwa, the assistant representative for the UN High Commissioner for Refugee, made a tour of the new relocation site between 17 -20 March. 

Bangladesh’s Foreign Ministry also received a copy of the report prepared by the UN team. “The facilities in Bhasan Char are good overall. However, the UN also has some recommendations,” the report in the Daily Star quoted a source as saying.

Bangladesh, which is currently hosting around one million Rohingya refugees from Myanmar’s Rakhine state, has already relocated 13,000 people to Bhasan Char island. Cox Bazaar, where most refugees still live, faces many issues like the danger of landslide due to hilly terrain, drug peddling, gender-based violence, and overcrowding. 

When the Bangladesh government had earlier announced its plan to relocate refugees to Bhasan Char island, the international community raised concerns about tidal surges and cyclones that could arise on the site. 

The government said with 120 brick-built cluster villages and 120 cyclone shelters, flood protection embankments, facilities for education, farming and fishing, hospitals, and playgrounds, the Char is a much better living place than the Cox's Bazar camps.