A delegation from the general secretariat of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) has arrived in Bhashan Char of Noakhali to see the facilities for Rohingyas, who were relocated to the island from the Cox's Bazar camps.
A five-member team of the OIC reached the island in the Bay of Bengal by a helicopter around 12pm on Sunday, Refugee Relief and Repatriation Commissioner (RRRC) Shah Rezwan Hayat told.
The visit comes at a time when the government of Bangladesh is continuing its efforts to relocate some 100,000 Rohingyas to Bhashan Char from the congested Cox's Bazar camps to provide them with a better living place.
In four phases, more than 9,500 Rohingyas have been relocated so far to the island, developed by the Bangladesh Navy at a cost of Tk3,100 crore.
An official concerned told Dhaka Tribune that the OIC delegation flew to Bhashan Char from Dhaka and officials at the different ministries accompanied them on the island.
They will fly to Cox's Bazar in the afternoon for a meeting with the RRRC, he added.
Earlier, the OIC delegation arrived in Dhaka on Saturday on a four-day visit to take stock of the conditions of the Rohingya refugees.
During the visit, the delegation will hold a series of consultations with Bangladeshi officials on ways and means to support bilateral cooperation and coordinate on the issue of the Rohingya Muslims in Myanmar, according to the OIC.
Bangladesh is now hosting over 1.1 million Rohingyas in Cox's Bazar district.
Most of them entered Bangladesh since August 25, 2017, amid a military crackdown on Rohingyas in the Rakhine state of Myanmar, which the UN called a "textbook example of ethnic cleansing" and other rights groups dubbed as "genocide."
Bangladesh has called on Myanmar to move forward the stalled process of voluntary repatriation of Rohingya refugees, as international pressure mounts on the military leaders following a coup, which reduces the refugees' hopes of returning home.
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