A team of 40 Rohingyas today went to Bhashan Char Island in Hatiya of Noakhali where the government has built an accommodation facility for one lakh Rohingyas.

"The Rohingya majhis [leaders] from Cox's Bazar camps went to Bhashan Char under the supervision of Bangladesh Army and Navy. They will stay there for three days before returning to Cox's Bazar on September 8," Refugee Rehabilitation and Repatriation Commissioner (RRRC) Mahbub Alam Talukder told The Daily Star today.

"If everything is right, we will start relocating one lakh Rohingyas after the monsoon," he said.

Additional RRRC Mohammad Shamsuddoza Noyon said the 40 Rohingyas from 34 camps were mobilsed at a transit camp at Kutupalong of Ukhiya last night. Early today, they were taken to Chattogram and then to Bhashan Char in a Bangladesh Navy ship, reports our Cox's Bazar Correspondent.

"This is part of a motivational programme," he said.

The government has built 120 cluster villages on the 40 sqkm island under a Tk 2,312 crore housing project for accommodating one lakh of the nearly 1 million Rohingyas sheltered in cramped camps in Cox's Bazar.

According to government officials, the houses have been built four feet above the ground with concrete blocks. The entire housing site is protected by a 13 km long flood embankment. There are also 120 cyclone shelters, which are planned to be used as schools, medical centres and community centres.

The officials also said there are large swathes of land that could be used for livestock and fish farming if the Rohingyas were relocated there. The refugees in the Cox's Bazar camps have very little work to do now.

UN and aid agencies have been insisting that the island was isolated, flood-prone and would be hazardous for the Rohingyas because of cyclones and tidal surges.

Amid such a situation, the government in February this year had considered shelving the idea of relocating the Rohingyas because the international organisations have not agreed to it.

Without cooperation from those organisations, the government would face difficulties in arranging food, healthcare and other necessary items for one lakh people on Bhashan Char, Md Enamur Rahman, state minister for disaster management and relief, had told The Daily Star after a visit to the island on February 13.

After the visit, Foreign Minister AK Abdul Momen had said if the Rohingyas were shifted to Bhashan Char, they might not agree to leave the place in future. He also had said the government wanted the Rohingyas to go back to Rakhine and repatriation was high priority.

Asked about the future of the housing project if the government changes the relocation plan, he had said they were yet to decide on it, but he thought homeless people from other parts of the country could be accommodated on the island that is safe for human habitation.

The idea of shelving the relocation plan seemed to have reversed now. Foreign Secretary Masud Bin Momen at a webinar on August 24 said the government has arranged adequate health, sanitary facility and vaccination, with referral system for complicated health conditions in Bhashan Char.

Besides, it created temporary work and livelihood options (salt-tolerant paddy, horticulture, fisheries, poultry and animal husbandry) and arranged primary -- non-formal and formal -- education which can be extended to secondary education. Vocational education and skill development facility may be established in due course.

He said the mighty cyclone Amphan has attested to the durability of the island and quality of the structures built.

He also highlighted the congestion, demographic imbalance, risks of mudslides and criminal activities in Cox's Bazar camps.

"Detractors should now stop their propaganda on Bhashan Char and examine how to relieve pressure off the highly congested Cox's Bazar area where locals are outnumbered at a ratio of 2:1," he said.

Masud Bin Momen also said the 306 Rohingyas rescued in the Bay of Bengal and sheltered in the island were doing well and hinted of the "go-and-see visit" for relatives of sheltered Rohingyas and other representatives to Bhashan Char.

"If they find the place better than the cramped camps in Cox's Bazar, we expect to commence initial transfer of Rohingyas there after the Monsoon season," he said.

UN Teams are expected to visit Bhashan Char and prepare UN system's assistance response, he said.

Meanwhile, UNHCR said it is aware of reports of a go-and-see visit, but has neither been involved in this visit nor requested to support it.

"Go-and-see visits are one important part of ensuring refugees can make an informed choice about voluntary relocation to the island. The safety and protection of refugees are the most important considerations, as is the need for any relocation to be voluntary," said Mostafa Mohammad Sazzad Hossain, assistant communication officer at the UNHCR in Dhaka today.

The UN continues to emphasise the need to be able to undertake thorough protection and technical assessments before any relocations to Bhasan Char, to ensure that the island is a safe and sustainable place for refugees to live.

The UN informed the government that it would be prepared to undertake a protection visit to Bhashan Char and terms of reference have been shared.

"We are continuing to await feedback. Several months have passed since the refugees were transferred to Bhashan Char, and it is now urgent for the UN to have access to them," the UNHCR officer said in a statement.

A comprehensive technical and protection assessment to evaluate the safety and sustainability of life on Bhashan Char are essential before any relocation to the island, the statement said.

"Any relocation should be voluntary. The UN has long been prepared to proceed with this onsite assessment work," the UNHCR said.

VAN, Turkey

A total of 65 irregular migrants were held in Turkey’s eastern province of Van on Saturday.

In a statement, the provincial security directorate said security forces stopped a suspicious minibus in the Ipekyolu district.

The 15-person minibus was carrying 24 Afghans, 20 Pakistanis, seven Syrians, 12 Bangladeshis, and two Myanmar nationals, all of whom entered the country illegally.

The minibus driver, identified as M.G., was arrested.

The irregular migrants were later referred to the provincial migration directorate.

Turkey has been a key transit point for irregular migrants aiming to cross to Europe to start new lives, especially those fleeing war and persecution.

Some 268,000 irregular migrants were held in Turkey in 2018, according to the Interior Ministry, and over 336,000 have been held so far this year./aa

As US-China relations reach a boiling point, Washington has started to screen Chinese students at airports for technology theft.

When Boston Logan International Airport's announcement asked Keith Zhang to come to the boarding desk, he thought it was a regular boarding check.

But when he saw two armed American officers expecting him there, his heart sank.

"They questioned me under the premise that I am here to steal technology," Keith Zhang - not his real name - tells the BBC.

Zhang, a 26-year-old PhD student from China, was a visiting researcher at Brown University's department of psychological sciences for a year.

He had not expected to spend his last two hours on US soil being interrogated about his potential ties with the Chinese Communist Party.

So what might have happened?

FBI director Christopher Wray recently said, in response to Beijing's "far-reaching campaign" of economic espionage, the FBI is now opening a new China-related counterintelligence case every 10 hours.

In July, Washington closed the Chinese consulate in Houston, calling it a "spy centre".

As the US tightens its scrutiny of Chinese nationals over espionage concerns, screening selected departing Chinese students and researchers appears to be Washington's new measure to counter economic espionage. Some of the students' electronic devices were taken away for further examination and not returned for weeks.

Zhang describes the screening as "pure harassment".

"If I were to steal any data or intellectual property, I could send it through cloud storage. Taking away my laptop and phone for examination does nothing more than harassment," Zhang says.

China's foreign ministry accuses Washington of "abusing" the judicial power to interrogate and arrest Chinese students in the US "under fabricated allegations".

However, a series of indictments against Chinese researchers suggest the suspicions of US authorities have some grounds.

In August, Haizhou Hu, a 34-year-old Chinese visiting scholar at the University of Virginia, was arrested when he attempted to board a flight to China at Chicago O'Hare International Airport.

The Department of Justice said "a routine screening" revealed that his laptop contained research-related software code, which he was not authorised to possess. The code has military applications, according to a federal indictment.

Separately, the US recently captured multiple Chinese researchers who are accused of concealing their ties with the Chinese military in visa applications. A scientist had allegedly fled to China's consulate in San Francisco, before she was arrested. Another Chinese researcher threw away a damaged hard drive and was later charged with destroying evidence to obstruct an FBI investigation.

US Assistant Secretary of State David Stilwell tells the BBC that, for students who come to the US with the intent of learning, America's doors are "wide open".

"But if you are here masquerading as (students)," he says, "we have to defend ourselves."

Sheena Greitens, associate professor of public affairs at University of Texas, Austin, says there's an "intensification of concerns" over technology transfer from the US to China through academic channels.

"Given that these are investigations into espionage, it's unlikely that we'll see full details for every case, but it's hard to make informed judgements on the nature of the threat to national security based on the handful of cases we've seen made public so far," Prof Greitens says.

Unlike Hu, Zhang was allowed to board his flight at the last minute, but he says the airport screening was "a traumatic experience".

He recalls the two armed officers repeatedly accused him of lying. "I was under great pressure and almost had a mental breakdown," he says.

Zhang did not ask for the officers' names or identities, nor did he request to speak to a lawyer, Brown University or the Chinese Embassy in the US.

"I knew I had these rights but I didn't want to risk missing my flight," Zhang says.

Boarding his flight was Zhang's absolute priority, as he was eager to go home to reunite with his wife. They got married a year ago but have spent most of the time apart due to his study in the US.

During the pandemic, it is difficult to travel from the US to China, as international flights are curtailed sharply by both countries. Zhang spent weeks and nearly $5,000 to secure flight tickets to his hometown Shanghai via Amsterdam.

In general, US law enforcement agents have to get a warrant to search electronic devices, but airports are an exception. US border agents only need "reasonable suspicion" to search travellers' electronic devices at airports.

According to the South China Morning Post US border agents carried out over 1,100 searches of Chinese nationals' electronic devices in 2019, recording a 66% increase from the previous year.

Prof Greitens says airports are also "a choke point for the physical outflow of information", where legal, physical and personnel infrastructure for the screening are concentrated and where most passengers transit to depart the US.

John Demers, US Assistant Attorney General, recently said that the airport screening is "more targeted than it may first appear".

He revealed the screening decision is based on the students' schools in China and fields of study. Visiting scholars of an advanced scientific field and from institutions related to the Chinese military, are more likely to be targeted.

"What we are trying to do is to write with a fine-pointed pencil, as opposed to a big magic marker," Mr Demers said at a public think-tank event in Washington DC.

Both Hu and Zhang received scholarships provided by the China Scholarship Council (CSC) for their research in the US.

CSC is an organisation under China's Ministry of Education, providing financial support for educational exchanges between China and other countries.

According to a recent research conducted by Georgetown University, CSC sponsors around 65,000 Chinese overseas students, accounting for 7% of Chinese nationals studying aboard. It also funds roughly the same number of foreign students in China.

During his exchange study in America, Zhang received a monthly stipend of $1,900 (£1430) from CSC. He was also required to submit a research report every six months, which his collaborator at Brown University would read and sign.

China's higher education and research systems are mostly state-owned. Though not all researchers are Chinese Communist Party (CCP) members, the party could cast a shadow of influence on research.

CCP has installed representatives and informants in education institutions, and some universities even revised their charters to emphasize unswerving loyalty to the party.

At the airport, Zhang told the American law enforcement officers that the CCP has no direct influence on his research in cognitive psychology, which is "highly theoretical". But the officers didn't seem convinced due to the government funding.

"It's normal for all governments to fund scientific research. America also funds public universities and labs," Zhang says, "There's no way for me to convince them, if in their views, government funding equals to the Communist Party's direct influence on every single research project."

CSC is now under intense scrutiny in the US, as it is considered as an avenue by which Beijing could exert influence over overseas students.

On 31 August, the University of North Texas terminated its exchange program with 15 Chinese visiting researchers receiving CSC funding, effectively revoking their US visas. This appears to be the first case of an American university severing ties with CSC.

Prof Greitens expects some increased scrutiny of Chinese nationals studying science and technology in the US, especially those who received Chinese government funding, to continue regardless of the outcome of the US election.

"Both (Trump and Biden) administrations are likely to take the potential threat of illegal technology transfer between the US and China very seriously," she says.

Though Zhang was impressed by the academic rigour in America and enjoyed working with colleagues at Brown University, he says he won't consider ever visiting the country again due to the screening experience.

"It was very scary. I felt my safety could be harmed at any time," he says.

Worrying for a gloomy prospect of US-China relations, Zhang has started to lobby his Chinese friends in America to consider returning home.

"The New Cold War has started," he says. "There's no turning back, no matter who is going to be America's next president."

Scientists have calculated how many mammals might be lost this century, based on fossil evidence of past extinctions.

Their predictions suggest at least 550 species will follow in the footsteps of the mammoth and sabre-toothed cat.

With every "lost species" we lose part of the Earth's natural history, they say.

Yet, despite these "grim" projections, we can save hundreds of species by stepping up conservation efforts.

The new research, published in the journal Science Advances, suggests that humans are almost entirely responsible for extinctions of mammals in past decades.

And rates will escalate in the future if we don't take action now.

Despite this "alarming" scenario, we could save hundreds if not thousands of species with more targeted and efficient conservation strategies, said Tobias Andermann of the Gothenburg Global Biodiversity Centre and the University of Gothenburg.

In order to achieve this, we must increase our collective awareness about the "looming escalation of the biodiversity crisis, and take action in combatting this global emergency".

"Time is pressing," he said. "With every lost species, we irreversibly lose a unique portion of Earth's natural history."

The scientists compiled a large dataset of fossils, which provided evidence for the timing and scale of recent extinctions.

Their computer-based simulations predict large increases in extinction rates by the year 2100, based on the current threat status of species.

According to these models, the extinctions that have occurred in past centuries only represent the tip of the iceberg, compared with the looming extinctions of the next decades.

"Reconstructing our past impacts on biodiversity is essential to understand why some species and ecosystems have been particularly vulnerable to human activities - which can hopefully allow us to develop more effective conservation actions to combat extinction," said Prof Samuel Turvey of ZSL (Zoological Society of London).

Last year an intergovernmental panel of scientists said one million animal and plant species were now threatened with extinction.

Scientists have warned that we are entering the sixth mass extinction, with whatever we do now likely to define the future of humanity.