Bangladesh navy personnel check Rohingyas before they board a ship to move to Bhasan Char island in Chattogram, Bangladesh, December 29, 2020. REUTERS/Mohammad Ponir Hossain
December 29, 2020
DHAKA (Reuters) -Bangladesh started moving a second group of Rohingya Muslim refugees to a low-lying island in the Bay of Bengal on Tuesday, a naval official told Reuters, despite opposition from rights groups worried about the new site’s vulnerability to floods.
The 1,804 Rohingya were being moved in seven ships to Bhasan Char island, said Navy Commodore Abdullah Al Mamun Chowdhury.
“We are ready to receive the new arrivals,” he said by telephone from the island.
A first group of more than 1,600 Rohingya, members of a minority group who have fled from Myanmar, were relocated from their camps near the Myanmar border to Bhasan Char earlier in the month.
(Reporting by Ruma PaulEditing by Jacqueline Wong, Robert Birsel)