(Reuters) -A United Nations human rights investigator urged Bangladesh on Thursday to allow a safety assessment of the remote island where the government shipped 1,600 Rohingya refugees last week, and a verification process to ensure that refugees are not forced to go.
The United Nations says it has not been allowed to carry out a technical and safety assessment of Bhasan Char, a flood-prone island in the Bay of Bengal, and was not involved in the transfer of refugees there.
Thomas Andrews, the U.N. human rights investigator to Myanmar, said in a statement the assessment and verification process were in the “best interest of all”.
“They will assure the government of Bangladesh of the suitability of Bhasan Char to host refugees or identify changes that might be necessary,” he said.
“It will also assure that the government’s policy of strict voluntary relocation to Bhasan Char is, indeed, being faithfully carried out,” he added.
There was no immediate response from the Bangladeshi government.
Bangladesh says it is transferring only people who are willing to go and the move will ease chronic overcrowding in camps that are home to more than 1 million Rohingya, members of a Muslim minority who have fled neighbouring Myanmar.
But refugees and humanitarian workers say some of the Rohingya have been coerced into going to the island, which emerged from the sea 20 years ago.
(Reporting by Poppy Elena McPhersonEditing by Frances Kerry)
