Javed Iqbal lived in Oman for 11 years and returned home to Swandip in 2016 with a plan to settle down in the country.

When he heard about the huge construction work going on in Bhasan Char for the relocation of one lakh Rohingya refugees, Javed along with a few friends came to the island as there was no restriction at the time.

“I thought if I could open a grocery shop, I could earn something because around 14,000-15,000 people were working in the island every day,” he told this correspondent in front of his grocery shop.

He opened a grocery and started doing business but when the project was complete, the construction workers left.

“In the last year, I was eagerly waiting for the Rohingyas, for the island to get new life.”

There are 63 shops in Bhasan Char Bazar. Apart from groceries, there are mobile servicing shops, barber shops, poultry shops and a separate kitchen market.

Shop owners said the advantage of the shops in Bhasan Char is they do not have to pay rent.

They had taken permission from project authorities to build the shops.

Like the islands of Hatiya and Swandip, shop owners brought goods to Bhasan Char through trawlers from Chattogram and Noakhali.

Hailing from Subarna Char of Noakhali, Mohammad Atikullah came to this island in 2017 as a day labourer.

He used to load and unload construction materials and did the job for a month.

He then realised that a vegetable shop would be a good income source as there was no such shop on the island.

He talked with project officials and opened a small vegetable shop.

“Although my home is very close to Bhasan Char, I did not go back for the first 18 months as the business was going well,” he said.

He had vegetables brought from Noakhali via trawler every day.

“My people bought vegetables from Noakhali and then loaded it in the trawler. I received it at Bhasan Char, and did my transactions through bKash,” he said.

Atikullah said as Rohingyas have started arriving, the business will be pick up day by day. Other shop-keepers in the island were similarly excited by the prospect of their businesses thriving with the arrival of the population for whom the island has gotten new life.

Md Riaz Uddin, a grocery shopkeeper in Bhasan Char, said the island had turned into a small town before their eyes, and if one lakh Rohingyas come it would turn into a big city and their business will be good.

They however fear that if Rohingyas get involved in business, they may be cornered as the Rohingyas are now the majority in the island.

They are now cautiously observing the situation and do not want to say anything on record.

A shopkeeper, wishing not to be named, said, “We provided services to the people in the last three years. We sacrificed a lot but if we don’t get allocation in the bazars constructed inside the housing area, it will be frustrating.”

Commodore AA Mamun Chowdhury, project director of the Ashrayan-3 Project (the official name of the Bhasan Char project), said those who provided services earlier and have shops in the existing Bazar will get priority in the shops inside the housing area.

He said these people have served like a “one-stop service” in any emergency and they stood beside the project since the beginning.

“Rohingyas have no scope of getting involved in business,” he said.

Two bazars inside the housing area have already been prepared and the construction work of another is ongoing. Those who are doing business in the existing bazar will get priority there, the commodore said.

by Mohammad Al-Masum Molla in The Daily Star, Dec 7, 2020
https://www.thedailystar.net/frontpage/news/relocation-bhasan-char-businesses-eye-boom-rohingyas-arrive-2006993