A total of 2,014 displaced Rohingya people of Myanmar are on their way to Bhasan Char island from Chattogram on Monday.
Officials concerned said that Bangladesh Navy ships left Patenga Naval jetty carrying the Rohingyas in the morning.
Several dozens of buses and trucks with police guards carried the Rohingyas and their belongings to Chattogram from a temporary transit camp on the Ukhia Degree College field in Cox’s Bazar earlier on Sunday.
‘A total of 2m014 Rohingyas are being shifted today [Monday]. Another 1,000 refugees will leave camp today and reach to Bhasan Char tomorrow [ Tuesday] in the third phase of relocation,’ the additional refugees, relief and repatriation commissioner in Cox’s Bazar Md Shamsud Douza told.
The authorities have so far transferred 6,686 Rohingyas to the island since beginning the process in December.
On January 29, and January 30, a total of 1,778 and 1,4,62 Rohingyas were relocated in the third phase of relocation.
On December 4, 2020, a total of 1,642 Rohingyas were transferred to Bhashan Char in the first batch and 1,804 in the second phase on December 29, 2020.
The Bangladesh government has invested more than Tk 3,100 crore to develop the 13,000-acre island in the Bay of Bengal with all amenities, uninterrupted supply of electricity and water, agricultural plots, cyclone shelters, two hospitals, four community clinics, mosques, warehouses, telecommunication services, police station, recreation and learning centres and playgrounds.
The island is connected with the mainland through waterways.
A total of 8,60,000 Rohingyas, mostly women, children and aged people, entered Bangladesh fleeing unbridled murder, arson and rape during ‘security operations’ by Myanmar military in Rakhine, what the United Nations denounced as ethnic cleansing and genocide, beginning on August 25, 2017.
The latest Rohingya influx took the number of undocumented Myanmar nationals and registered refugees in Bangladesh to over 1.1 million, according to estimates by UN agencies and Bangladesh foreign ministry.
Not a single Rohingya has returned to their home in Rakhine as the Myanmar government has almost stalled the repatriation process, resorting to various means, including near discontinuation of clearing of names of the refugees eligible to go back to their homeland and an unwillingness to hold meetings of the bilateral joint working group and the tripartite mechanism led by China.
