Authorities at Payra Port in Patuakhali’s Kolapara have allegedly evicted six families from the ethnic Rakhine minority community in “Chho-Ani” Para, leaving them without shelter, according to a press release.
Chingdamo Rakhine, a member of one displaced family, spoke at a discussion held Monday morning at Dhaka’s National Press Club. “During the second phase of land acquisition for Payra Port’s expansion, authorities took our 250-year-old homestead without any consultation,” he alleged. “We only received compensation for trees and structures – no one has been compensated for the occupied land itself.”
Chingdamo further claimed: “Despite 37 months passing, no effective solution has emerged. The port authority promised us Tk5,000 monthly rent assistance but stopped payments after six months.”
The event featured speeches by human rights activist Dipayan Khisa, Adivasi Forum’s Mainthin Promila and Mongchothin Talukdar, Professor Robayet Ferdous, AARD Executive Director Shamsul Huda, JASAD’s Nazmul Haque Prodhan, and Nagorik Uddyog’s Zakir Hossain, among others.
Professor Robayet Ferdous criticised: “While 60,000 Rakhine people lived here in the 1960s, systematic evictions now push them toward extinction. Not even a memorial exists for language movement martyr U Shue here – indigenous communities are being erased completely.”