Bangladesh naval vessels on Friday shipped some 1,600 Rohingya refugees towards a remote island in the Bay of Bengal despite protests by refugees and humanitarian groups that some were being coerced.
Bangladesh said it is only moving refugees who are willing to go to Bhasan Char, a flood-prone island, and it will ease chronic overcrowding in camps that are home to more than 1 million Rohingya, members of a Muslim minority who have fled neighbouring Myanmar. Refugees were packed across the decks of the naval vessels on plastic chairs. Some brought umbrellas to shelter from the sun on a journey that takes several hours.
But refugees and humanitarian workers say some of the Rohingya had been coerced into going to Bhashan Char.
A naval official said that the Rohingya were aboard seven boats, with two more carrying supplies that set out from the southern port of Chittagong.
"The government is not taking anyone to Bhashan Char forcibly. We maintain this position," Foreign Minister Abdul Momen told.
Bangladesh has spent some $400 million from its own coffers building shelters and a nine-foot flood embankment around the facilities. Bangladeshi authorities say the relocation will ease congestion in the vast network of camps where deadly landslides as well as violence by drug gangs and extremists are common.
But it is unclear what health care or educational facilities there will be on the island or whether the refugees will be able to leave if they wish to.
The United Nations office in Bangladesh said that it had been prevented from independently assessing the "safety, feasibility and sustainability" of the island as a place to live.
Security was tightened on the island on Friday. A police station was created and nearly 300 police including women officers were deployed there said a police officer
