3 yıl önce

Number of Rohingya moved to remote Bangladesh island tops 10,000

Bangladesh government wants to move more than 100,000 Rohingya people from makeshift camps in its southeastern border, where around a million of the Muslim minority live in dire conditions after fleeing a military crackdown in Myanmar in 2017.

Reuters

In this December 29, 2020 file photo, Bangladesh Navy personnel help a disabled Rohingya refugee child to get off from a navy vessel as they arrive at the Bhasan Char island in Noakhali district, Bangladesh.

Another 3,000 Rohingya refugees have been relocated by Bangladesh to a remote silt island in the Bay of Bengal, according to officials, bringing the total number taken to the new settlement to more than 10,000.

Dhaka wants to relocate 100,000 Rohingya from squalid border camps in southeastern Bangladesh, where nearly a million of the Muslim minority have lived in crowded conditions since fleeing a 2017 military offensive in neighbouring Myanmar.

About 2,000 more refugees were moved to Bhashan Char on Monday and another 1,000 on Tuesday, Anwarul Kabir, a senior officer with the Bangladesh navy said.

Their arrival comes after around 7,000 men, women and children were taken in December and January to the 53-sq-km island, which is a three-hour boat journey from the southeastern port of Chittagong.

'Not voluntarily'

Bangladesh's Deputy Refugee Commissioner Mohammad Shamsud Douza said the Rohingya had moved to the island "spontaneously and willingly."

"They are taking their dogs, bunnies and goats to the island with them," Douza said.

But rights activists say not all the refugees have left voluntarily and critics have said the island is prone to flooding and is in the path of deadly cyclones.

There has been fighting in recent months between rival Rohingya drug gangs in southeastern Bangladesh's refugee camps, the world's largest, with several people killed and several others reported injured.

Officials said they were hoping to move more refugees to the island ahead of the April-May cyclone season and the June-September monsoon, when the sea is rough.

The United Nations says it has not been involved in the relocations.