Bangladesh authorities sent a fourth group of Rohingya refugees from Myanmar to a newly developed island in the Bay of Bengal on Monday despite calls by human rights groups for a halt to the process.
The roughly 2,000 Rohingya who had been living in the sprawling refugee camps of Cox’s Bazar were sent to Bhasan Char, an island specifically developed to accommodate 100,000 of the 1 million Rohingya who have fled from neighbouring Myanmar, M. Mozammel Haque, a commander of the Bangladesh Navy, told presspersons.
With Monday’s group, more than 7,000 refugees have moved to the island since the process started in December.
While human rights groups have criticised the moves and some are being forced to go against their will, the government has insisted that refugees moving to the island have done so voluntarily.
