demanding information. One witness, Jorina, said that one of the officers conducting the raid threatened the refugees, saying, “‘You have no hope to return to Cox’s Bazar. Your families will be brought here too. Don’t even dream of going back.’” Role of the United Nations and Donors Bangladesh authorities arranged a visit for foreign heads of mission to showcase Bhasan Char on April 3, 2021. The visit was highly orchestrated, and the officials were not able to mix freely with the refugees. The diplomats who visited the island did not make any public comment, although one embassy official told Human Rights Watch they were able to meet only about 40 “selected” Rohingya refugees and were only able to talk to them in the presence of Bangladeshi officials. One refugee on the island later told Human Rights Watch: “We were not allowed to meet with the delegation. If we had been able to meet them, we would have had so many things to share and we would have requested their help to allow us to go back to the camps in Cox’s Bazar.” The Bangladesh government, however, capitalized on this visit to claim that diplomats had no concerns. In a press release on April 3, the Bangladesh Ministry of Foreign Affairs said, “The Ambassadors freely interacted with the Rohingya representatives and shared their thoughts and hopes.” An 18-member UN team also visited the island from March 17-20. Refugees told Human Rights Watch that they were only allowed to speak in the presence of Bangladesh officials, and that they were compelled to provide testimony to make it appear as though there were no problems on the island. One refugee, Roshid, 38, said: Before the UN team arrived here on March 17, the authorities called some of the refugees in my cluster and ordered us to say we are regularly getting 5,000 taka each month, the food we are receiving here is much more than in the camps, and that the health facilities are very modern. 9 HUMAN RIGHTS WATCH | JUNE 2021