Bangladesh authorities, donors, and international agencies often point to the poor conditions in the refugee camps as evidence that the relocation of refugees to Bhasan Char is a viable solution. However, many of these same problems are replicated, and even exacerbated, on the island. Bangladesh has a history of eschewing steps that would make camp conditions truly hospitable, thereby increasing pressure on refugees to return to dangerous conditions in Myanmar, or, in this case, to relocate to Bhasan Char. 32 The authorities, for example, have refused to allow refugees in the Cox’s Bazar camps to build permanent structures that would protect against mudslides and flooding during monsoon season. 33 According to the Inter Sector Coordination Group (ISCG), during the 2020 monsoon season there were more than 600 landslides and over 30 floods in the camps, affecting more than 118,000 refugees. Among those, over 8,700 refugees were displaced and over 24,000 shelters were partially or completely destroyed. The monsoon season also reduces availability of services—over 1,000 learning facilities were affected, latrines and water access points were flooded, and one health facility was damaged. 34 The Bangladesh government’s insistence that the refugees will soon return to Myanmar has also led it to deny access to any accredited education to the over 450,000 Rohingya children in the camps and prohibit humanitarian groups from constructing permanent, brick-and-mortar school buildings in the camps. 35 Barred from opening schools, nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) have since 2017 constructed about 3,000 “learning centers”: small, temporary bamboo structures that can accommodate up to 40 children at a time. Many learning centers “have rotted already and need to be replaced, since the little worms have been doing their work on the bamboo,” as a humanitarian official noted. 36 32 More than 200,000 Rohingya sought refuge in Bangladesh in 1977-78, and 280,000 fled from forced labor, rape, and religious persecution by the Myanmar military in 1991-92. On both occasions, Bangladesh carried out large-scale forced returns. In the 1970s, some 9,000 people starved to death when Bangladesh cut their food rations to pressure them to leave. See Jeff Crisp, “‘Primitive People’: The untold story of UNHCR’s Historical Engagement with Rohingya Refugees,” October 2018, Humanitarian Practice Network / Overseas Development Institute, https://odihpn.org/magazine/primitive-people-theuntold-story-of-unhcrs-historical-engagement-with-rohingya-refugees/ (accessed April 26, 2021); Human Rights Watch, Bangladesh is Not My Country, p. 13. 33 “Bangladesh: Rohingya Face Monsoon Floods, Landslides,” Human Rights Watch news release, July 12, 2019, https://www.hrw.org/news/2019/07/12/bangladesh-rohingya-face-monsoon-floods-landslides (accessed April 15, 2021). 34 ISCG, “Monsoon Response in Rohingya Refugee Camps: 12 June to 15 October 2020” https://www.humanitarianresponse.info/sites/www.humanitarianresponse.info/files/documents/files/final_monsoon_sum mary_2020_12_june_to_15_oct.pdf (accessed April 26, 2021). 35 Human Rights Watch, “Are We Not Human?” 36 Ibid. 19 HUMAN RIGHTS WATCH | JUNE 2021