A right to stay for the inhabitants of Korail

Korail is a settlement in Dhaka, Bangladesh, which provides a home to ca. 120,000 people. Its inhabitants work in garment factories, as rickshaw pullers and housemaids. Many of the families have been living in the area for more than 15 years and made Korail a vibrant urban neighbourhood.

On April 4 2012, parts of Korail Bosti were evicted, leaving approximately 4,000 of its inhabitants without shelter. Following the instructions of a Dhaka District Magistrate, two bulldozers and a large group of hired labourers demolished hundreds of structures regardless of whether their inhabitants had left and whether they had managed to save their belongings. The eviction was based on a High Court Order of 25th January 2012, which declared an area of 170 acres, including Korail and an adjacent settlement, illegally occupied and hence directed the relevant authorities to clear it. This Order was unknown locally until the magistrate read it out on 4th April 2012.

This new eviction order contradicts another High Court Order, which forbid evicting any settlement without providing the inhabitants with alternatives. Accordingly, this petition is brought out to protest the recent eviction drive and request the recognition of Korail as a permanent urban neighbourhood of Dhaka. We submit five requests to the Government of Bangladesh:

1. Sudden, uninformed and forced eviction drives without provision of alternatives must immediately be stopped.

2. Any proposal for resettlement in an outside location will ultimately not benefit Korail inhabitants, because their livelihoods are based in the area and its surroundings. Also the sharing of the land with private or public developers cannot be considered a solution. The government should reconsider its land distribution activities and include the option to lease out land to the urban poor.

3. The government should demarcate the area to be leased to Korail inhabitants. Current encroachments from all sides – and not only Korail’s – could be effectively avoided by such demarcation.

4. After leasing the land to the inhabitants of Korail, the area should be recognised as a regular urban neighbourhood and provided the same utilities and services, which other citizens of Dhaka already enjoy today.

5. The above points should be discussed in the wider public sphere of Dhaka. Towards their implementation, a discourse open for the participation of all urban dwellers should be promoted.