This is Thengar Char, an isolated Bangladeshi island two hours by speedboat from the mainland. It only emerged from the sea about 8 years ago & is still not on some maps. It is completely submerged under several feet of water at high tide every day (which lasts about six hours), has no roads, no flood defenses. It is in an area frequently hit by cyclones which in the past have killed thousands on the nearby island of Hatiya & on Bangladesh’s southern coast. The island is uninhabitable.

A team of Bangladeshi government surveyors selected Thengar Char as a place to relocate thousands of Rohingya refugees until they are deported back to Myanmar. There was no consideration given to permanent housing nor apparently to temporary housing which would be washed away every high tide, along with many refugees.

Thousands of African refugees in the Mediterranean & thousands of Rohingya in the Andaman have drowned; thousands from the Middle East are living outside in subzero temperatures; thousands from Asia, Africa, & Central America are on the US-Mexico border unable to cross to the US; thousands of Rohingya are in Bangladesh about to be forcibly relocated to this hellhole.

The protests all over this world for refugee rights, despite the deluge of misanthropic & idiotic criticisms, are politically imperative & historically monumental. Those who participate in them stand against these monstrous human rights crimes, stand with the refugees as our brothers & sisters, & will not be daunted by those who think the protesters not enlightened enough & not good enough to join because they didn’t call for Obama’s impeachment.

Those who stand with refugee rights are on the front lines of social transformation. Let the misanthrope’s complaints become as white noise & let them be left behind talking to their asses if they refuse to stand with the oppressed.

Open the borders. Immigration is a human right. Asylum for refugees is the very foundation of human civilization.

(Photo of Thengar Char taken in 2015 from AFP)