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 if they are not deported back to Burma. 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.

Prime minister Sheikh Hasina just told the Swedish ambassador to Bangladesh that this deranged deportation plan is still in the works. Stand with Rohingya refugees & demand no forced deportation & for asylum in any country they choose with visas & full refugee rights to work, education, healthcare.

(Photo of Thengar Char taken in 2015 from AFP)