Dhaka: Authorities in Bangladesh on Friday started sending a first group of more than 1,500 Rohingya refugees to an isolated island despite calls by human rights groups for a halt to the process.
The 1,642 refugees were boarding seven Bangladeshi naval vessels in the port of Chittagong for the trip to Bhashan Char, according to an official, who could not be named in accordance with local practice.
The island was once regularly submerged by monsoon rains but now has flood protection embankments, houses, hospitals and mosques built at a cost of more than USD 112 million by the Bangladesh navy.
Located 21 miles (34 kilometers) from the mainland, the island surfaced only 20 years ago and was never inhabited.
—PTI

Press Trust of India