Bangladesh has said that thousands of Rohingya refugees living in camps of the country have agreed to move to an island in the Bay of Bengal.
Around 740,000 Rohingya Muslims fled Myanmar in August 2017 following a military crackdown, joining 200,000 refugees already in makeshift tent settlements at Cox’s Bazar.
Bangladesh government has long wanted to move 100,000 refugees to the island, saying it would take pressure off the overcrowded border camps where almost a million Rohingya live, Al Jazeera reported.
Bangladesh refugee commissioner Mahbub Alam said around 6,000 to 7,000 refugees have already expressed their willingness to be relocated to Bhashan Char (the island) and the number is rising.
Alam , however, did not reveal when the refugees would be moved, but a senior Navy officer involved in building facilities on the island said the relocation could start by December, with some 500 refugees sent daily.
Bangladesh had been planning since last year to relocate Rohingya refugees to the desolate flood-prone site, which is an hour by boat from the mainland.