Bengal” with about 90 percent of worldwide fatalities from tropical cyclones occurring in this basin. 55 The Weather Underground has documented that 26 of the 35 known deadliest tropical cyclones have occurred in the Bay of Bengal. 56 Higher waters can also be exacerbated by the monsoon season, which lasts from about June to September and can bring up to 600 millimeters of rain in peak months, and which has previously caused flooding in Bhasan Char and similar islands nearby. 57 The tidal channels across the island indicate that entire areas of the island are at times submerged, according to the USGS Innovation Center. 58 Climate change will further exacerbate these risks. Climate scientists predict that this area will receive higher rainfall during monsoon season and that typhoons will be stronger and more frequent. 59 When the government started building infrastructure on the island in 2017, Golam Sarwar, an environmental specialist at Bangladesh’s Ministry of Land, warned that “a strong cyclone during a high tide would likely leave the entire island submerged.” 60 Residents from nearby Hatiya Island expressed similar concerns: “Part of the island is eroded by the monsoon every year,” one man said. “In that time, we never dare go to that island, so how will thousands of Rohingya live there?” 61 In June 2018 the Special Branch of Bangladesh’s police submitted a report to the Prime Minister’s office warning against the relocation of refugees to the island given concerns over humanitarian and climate risk. 62 55 Ibid. 56 Soutik Biswas, “Amphan: Why Bay of Bengal is the World’s Hotbed of Tropical Cyclones,” BBC, May 19, 2020, https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-india-52718531 (accessed April 27, 2021). 57 “Quarterly Newsletter of the Center for Environmental and Geographic Information Services (CEGIS),” Issue 54, October- December 2017, https://www.cegisbd.com/Documents/Newsletters/NL20171012.PDF (accessed April 28, 2021). 58 “A Remote Home for the Rohingya,” Reuters, December 31, 2018, http://fingfx.thomsonreuters.com/gfx/rngs/MYANMAR- ROHINGYA/010060Z21XP/index.html (accessed April 27, 2021). 59 Moazzem Hossain, “Climate Hazards and the Bay of Bengal Delta,” South Asia Journal (2011), oai: research- repository.griffith.edu.au:10072/44977. 60 “Bangladesh’s Island Solution,” Reuters, September 5, 2017, http://fingfx.thomsonreuters.com/gfx/rngs/MYANMAR- ROHINGYA/010050PD1KP/index.html#:~:text=Some%20nearby%20islands%20have%20a,of%20Bangladesh's%20Ministry %20of%20Land. (accessed April 27, 2021). 61 Brad Adams, “For Rohingya, Bangladesh’s Bhasan Char ‘Will Be Like a Prison,’” Human Rights Watch Dispatch, March 14, 2019, https://www.hrw.org/news/2019/03/15/rohingya-bangladeshs-bhasan-char-will-be-prison. 62 “Bangladesh rules out UN concern over Rohingya relocation to Bhasan Char,” New Age, March 13, 2019, http://www.newagebd.net/article/67265/bangladesh-rules-out-un-concern-over-rohingya-relocation-to-bhasan-char (accessed April 15, 2021). “AN ISLAND JAIL IN THE MIDDLE OF THE SEA” 24