Thread: Rohingyas - the final soloution

The ‘floating’ island that has refugees terrified

A disappearing island, cyclone season and 100,000 Rohingya refugees with nowhere else to go.

What could go wrong?


In the Bay of Bengal, a tiny silt island has emerged.

Formed from sediment washed down from the Himalayas, it is most commonly called Bhasan Char (“floating island”).

It is three hours by boat from the coast of Bangladesh, but heavy seas in the monsoon season often leave it cut off from the world.

The island has existed for barely a decade, but it is already washing away, eroding at half a kilometre per year.

Even in land-poor Bangladesh, the cyclone-lashed island has been uninhabited, used only for fishing or occasionally grazing cattle.



But within a few weeks, it could be home to over 100,000 Rohingya refugees.

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What I can reproduce here doesn't do the article justice as there is some excellent time lapse photography (over years)

Original article is here

A quick look at the nearby larger island of Sandwip shows shops, markets, schools, hospital and a police station. There is not so much land on Bhasan Char but with a bit of hard graft is could be turned into something.
Not sure whether it can support 100,000 as Sandwip is quite a lot bigger with a population of 350,000. Historically the sister island used to be controlled by the Arakanese who are the ancestors? of the Rohingha so in a sense they are in their ancestral lands if not actually going home.