The authorities in Bangladesh have transferred a fourth batch of Rohingya refugees to an isolated island in the Bay of Bengal known for its cyclones, despite international and human rights criticism.
The Anadolu Agency quoted the director of the Rohingya resettlement project, Brigadier General Abdullah Al-Mamoun Chowdhury, as saying that yesterday, Saturday, 1,463 Rohingya refugees were transported on board ships from the coastal city of Chattogram to the isolated "Bhasan Chara" island.
Chowdhury added that all the concrete homes are fully ready to accommodate new arrivals to the island, which now houses more than 7,000 deported Rohingya.
The same official also said that his country is ready to resettle all Rohingya - numbering 100,000 refugees - in cluster homes on the island of Bhasan Chara.
The authorities had earlier transferred 3 batches of more than 5 thousand Rohingya to this island, to which they were also transferred 8 months ago, 306 of this Muslim minority, after the Bengali navy rescued them at sea.
An international human rights organization urged the authorities in Bangladesh to stop deporting these refugees, and the United Nations also warned against forcibly transferring these refugees to the island, which it described as dangerous due to its exposure to hurricanes and floods.
It is reported that hundreds of thousands of Rohingya have fled to Bangladesh from persecution practiced against them by the army and security forces in neighboring Myanmar.