Bangladesh's own refugee commissioner admitted the Bhasan Char island camp amounts to "a kind of confinement," but tens of thousands of Rohingya remain confined there with no closure plan.
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A Fortify Rights report published 21 January 2026, based on 102 interviews conducted between May 2020 and October 2025, documented that more than 34,500 Rohingya refugees on Bhasan Char island face barbed-wire fencing, guard towers, 24-hour CCTV surveillance and arbitrary, frequently-denied restrictions on travel to the mainland for medical care or family visits -- conditions the report calls de facto arbitrary detention in violation of Bangladesh's constitution and international law. In an interview for the report, Mohammad Mizanur Rahman, Bangladesh's Refugee Relief and Repatriation Commissioner, conceded that conditions on the island are "a kind of confinement" and said "the government is not interested in continuing the Bhasan Char project," but the interim government has announced no plan or timeline to close it.
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Contacted and made an on-record admission — exact wording not on record.
Contacted and made an on-record admission — exact wording not on record.
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