Bangladesh
1700 Rohingya to move to Bhasan Char in second phase
Dhaka, December 29: The second group of Rohingya refugees reached Chittagong on their way from Cox's Bazar shelter to Bhasan Char island in Noakhali.
Commodore Abdullah Al Mamun Chowdhury, director of the Bhasan Char Asylum Project, said on Monday evening that more than 1,700 Rohingyas were being relocated in the second phase. They will be taken to Bhasan Char on Tuesday by several naval ships.
According to the Prime Minister's Office, despite plans to relocate 700 Rohingya in the second phase, more than twice as many Rohingya are voluntarily moving from Cox's Bazar to Bhasan Char under government management.
Locals said at least 30 buses carrying members of 425 Rohingya families from Ukhia and Teknaf camps in Cox's Bazar left for Chittagong on Monday afternoon. However, officials from the Office of the Commissioner for Refugee Relief and Repatriation did not want to comment on the matter.
Noakhali's Hatia Upazila Nirbahi Officer (UNO) Emran Hossain said the Rohingyas were scheduled to reach Bhasanchar by noon on Tuesday. At a press conference in Dhaka during the second phase of the relocation process, Road Transport Minister Obaidul Quader termed the opposition of international organizations to the Rohingya relocation as 'unreasonable'.
Of the 12 lakh Rohingya in Teknaf and Ukhia of Cox's Bazar, 1,642 Rohingya were taken to Bhasanchar, a sea island adjacent to Noakhali, on December 4.
After sending the first team, the second team was sent on Monday amid criticism from international organizations. According to the locals, 13 buses with Rohingya left the Ukhia Degree College campus at 12 noon. Later another fleet of 17 buses left.
For the first time, RAB, police and law enforcement agencies have been on high alert in front and behind the buses carrying Rohingya.