The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees said on Friday that Rohingya refugees should be empowered to make the decision to move to the island of "Pasan Char" in Bangladesh of their own free will and based on correct information given to them, at a time when navy ships began to transport about 1,600 to That remote island.

UNHCR spokesman Babar Baloch said in a press statement that the High Commissioner called on Bangladesh to fulfill its commitment that the transfer of the Rohingya to that island be voluntary.

He added that the UNHCR stands ready to assess the situation on the island to ensure that it is "a place where there is security and sustainable ways of life for the refugees" if the government allows that.

For his part, the United Nations office in Bangladesh confirmed in a brief statement Thursday that it "does not participate" in this transfer, which it has received "little information" about.

The statement said that the United Nations was not allowed to conduct an independent assessment of the "security, viability and viability" of Basan Char Island, stressing that the refugees "must be able to make a free and fact-based decision on their resettlement."

Bangladesh has relocated more than 1,600 Rohingya Muslim refugees from their camps to an island that is constantly struck by cyclones and floods, the first stage of a controversial plan to resettle 100,000 of them.

The ships carrying the refugees docked at noon Friday on Basan Shar island, said Shamsud Douza, a Bangladesh refugee official accompanying the Rohingya.

Refugees and human rights workers said that some Rohingya are forcibly transferred to Basan Char (Reuters)

Wishing only

Bangladesh says that only refugees wishing to go to Pasan Char are transported to it, and that this will reduce the permanent congestion in the camps inside that house more than a million Muslims fleeing neighboring Myanmar.

"The government does not forcibly take anyone to Basan Char. We are committed to this," Foreign Minister Abul Kalam Abdel Mumin told reporters late Thursday, adding that the facilities on the island were "much better" than they were in the camps.

But refugees and human rights workers say some Rohingya are forcibly transferred to Pasan Char, the flood-prone island that emerged 20 years ago.

Human rights organizations also reported that many of those who were sent in the first batch on Friday were forced to go.

More than 730,000 Rohingya fled Myanmar in 2017 after an army-led campaign there, and the United Nations said it was carried out with the aim of genocide, which Myanmar denies, which says its forces are targeting militants who attacked police posts.