The Disaster Management Ministry has asked the deputy commissioners of the districts around Dhaka to find out suitable land to shift the 33 camps of Urdu-speaking people in the city.
Officials involved with the process said that the move is meant for easing “population pressure” on the capital city. Ministry sources said that around 100,000 Urdu-speaking people live in these 33 camps in Dhaka.
They also said that the process of shifting these settlements – known as Bihari camps – from the middle of the city is one of the priorities of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina.
She wants to ensure a healthy accommodation for the Biharis outside Dhaka as they are involved in various productive jobs such as crafting Banarasi and Jamdani sarees, some of which are exported.
The premier took the initiative last year after 10 Urdu-speaking people were allegedly killed at the Kurmitola Bihari camp by the followers of a local ruling party lawmaker, who wanted to grab the land they lived in. However, that case is still to be solved.
In April this year, a delegation of the Biharis met PM Sheikh Hasina and she promised to shift them to suitable locations outside Dhaka.
Around 300,000 Biharis live in 70 camps in 13 districts in the country. Apart from Dhaka, these camps are located in Narayangani, Khulna, Chittagong, Bogra, Rajshahi, Jessore, Jamalpur, Pabna, Munshiganj, Rangpur, Nilphamari and Gaibandha.
Recently, an inter-ministerial meeting held at the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO) discussed the progress of the PM’s priority works, with Sheikh Yusuf Harun, first director general of the PMO, in the chair. The directive for shifting the Biharis came in that meeting.
Amit Kumar Baul, additional secretary of the Disaster Management Ministry, said the initiative had been taken to ensure the basic facilities for these people, not to evict them.
“We are yet find suitable land outside Dhaka for shifting the Bihari camps,” he said.
Farzana Naz, a resident of the Mohammadpur Bihari camp who has recently applied for a Bangladeshi passport, said: “The conditions in the camp is dire. Houses are separated by just two-feet wide passageways, shared by people, goats and chickens.”
She also said that the houses are tiny, usually of less than eight by eight dimensions, and host entire families. Residents raise their beds to make space for possessions underneath. When it rains, the camp floods, toilets overflow. As a result, most of camp dwellers are having to suffer from different kinds of diseases.
“Despite there being a 2008 law that guarantees citizenship for Bihari refugees, we are facing serious hardships to obtain citizenship documents such as passports and birth certificates,” she added.
Mohammad Shawkat Ali, joint secretary of the Stranded Pakistanis General Repatriating Committee and head teacher of the Geneva camp school, said: “We have already placed our statement regarding transferring our camps. We have also specified the basic facilities that our people should have if we move to a new land.”
He also said: “Urdu speakers have been enduring discrimination and extreme poverty since the country’s Liberation War. We are non-Bengali-speaking people but now we want to live like Bangladeshis. We have asked the government to conduct another survey on the Bihari population across the country.”
According to a 1992 survey, the total population of Biharis in Bangladesh was around 200,000.