First batch of Rohingyas reaches Bhasan Char

First batch of Rohingyas reaches Bhasan Char

The first batch of Rohingya refugees reached Bhasan Char, an island in the Bay of Bengal under Hatiya upazila of Noakhali, in the afternoon on Friday.

Bangladesh Navy Commodore Mamun Chowdhury, who is also Project Director at Bhasan Char, said the refugees arrived on the island around 2:00pm.

At about 10:20am on Friday a total of 1,642 Rohingyas headed for Bhasan Char in navy and army ships, said deputy commissioner of Chattogram Md Elias Hossain.

He said that armed personnel of Bangladesh Navy were in charge of ensuring security of the ships carrying them.

A convoy of 19 vessels was involved in transferring the Rohingyas, said the Navy officials in Chattogram.

Five navy ships and one army ship ferried the Rohingyas while one navy ship was on stand-by to provide back-up in case of emergency.

Four speed boats, four country boats, and two navy and two coast guard boats were escorting the six ships. Naval vessels Shah Paran and Shah Makhdum carrying 1,019 luggage reached Bhasan Char on Thursday, officials said.

The Rohingyas boarded the ships from three points of departure.

Earlier on Thursday, the Rohingyas reached Chattogram from Cox’s Bazar, where they had been staying since 2017. They stayed overnight at BF base Zahur in Chattogram.

The Navy had prepared the Tk 3,100 crore housing project, funded with public money, after some 750,000 Rohingyas fled a military crackdown in Myanmar’s Rakhine state and took shelter in Cox’s Bazar in the months following August 2017.

They joined some 300,000 other Rohingyas who had fled decades of violence in Rakhine. More than 1.1 million refugees were living in Cox’ Bazar.