Bangladesh starts transferring Rohingya refugees to low-lying Bhashan Char island

Buses carrying hundreds of Rohingya Muslims left the crowded Cox’s Bazar for the island in the Bay of Bengal prone to cyclones and floods

Human rights groups say they were coerced into leaving, but Bangladesh said 23,000 families chose to go as the current camps are congested and dangerous

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A Rohingya refugee woman and man who are among those being moved to Bhasan Char island cry as they stand outside a transit area where they are temporally housed in Ukhiya, Bangladesh. Photo: AP

Published: 9:11pm, 3 Dec 2020Updated: 9:10pm, 3 Dec 2020

Bangladesh began transferring hundreds of Rohingya refugees on Thursday to a low-lying island in an area prone to cyclones and floods, with rights groups alleging people were being coerced into leaving.

Almost a million Rohingya – most of whom fled a military offensive in neighbouring Myanmar in 2017 – live in a vast network of squalid camps in south-eastern Bangladesh.

With many refusing to return, and with violent drug gangs and extremists active on the sites, the Bangladeshi government has grown increasingly impatient to clear out the camps.

On Thursday more than 20 buses carrying almost a thousand people left the camps in the Cox’s Bazar region, headed for the port city of Chittagong, said Anwar Hossain, regional police chief.

“Twenty buses left in two shifts. There were 423 people in the first 10 buses and 499 in the second 10 buses,” he said.

From Chittagong the refugees were due to be taken by military landing craft to the island of Bhashan Char, officials said.