Dhaka, Dec 27: Bangladesh government announced on Sunday that it will be moving the second batch of Rohingya refugees to the remote island of Bhasan Char in the Bay of Bengal soon.
This announcement was made despite calls by rights groups not to carry out further relocations of the Rohingyas.
Under the latest move about 1,000 Rohingya refugees, will be moved to the flood-prone island in the next few days after 1,600 people were relocated there earlier this month, by the Bangladesh authorities.
“They will be moved to Chittagong first and then to Bhasan Char, depending on the high tide,” an official said.
Mohammed Shamsud Douza, the deputy Bangladesh government official in charge of refugees, said the relocation was voluntary, i.e. only people who are willing to go are being transferred there and the move will ease chronic overcrowding in the Cox’s Bazar camps that are home to more than one million Rohingyas.
However, the UN has said it has not been allowed to carry out a technical and safety assessment of Bhasan Char in the Bay of Bengal and was in no way involved in the transfer of refugees there.
Refugees and humanitarian workers have said that some of the Rohingya have been coerced into going to the island, which emerged from the sea only 20 years ago. (UNI)
