Relocation to Bhasan Char: Around 1,500 Rohingyas depart Cox’s Bazar, law enforcement sources say

Around 1,500 Rohingya refugees who want to live in Bhasan Char have left for Chattogram from Cox's Bazar today in four convoys, according to sources at law enforcement agencies.

In the first convoy of 10 buses around 11:15am, 423 Rohingya refugees left Cox's Bazar for Chattogram, the sources said.

The second convoy left Cox's Bazar around noon with around 500 Rohingyas in 10 other buses, they added.

Two more convoys also later left Cox's Bazar, according to sources at law enforcement agencies.

A total of 38 buses were used in the four convoys.

Rohingyas from Cox's Bazar are seen in a bus in this photo taken at BAF Shaheen College in Chattogram on December 3, 2020. Photo: Md Rajib Raihan

Two battalions of Rapid Action Battalion -- Rab-7 and Rab-15 -- have been deployed on the Cox's Bazar-Chattogram highway today to ensure smooth relocation of Rohingyas to Bhasan Char, Lt Col Ashique Billah, director of the legal and media wing of Rab headquarters, told The Daily Star earlier today.

Read more: Rohingya Relocation to Bhasan Char: All set with UN views put aside

Government sources yesterday told this paper that the authorities were preparing to shift the first batch of around 2,500 Rohingyas to the island from the Cox's Bazar camps within a couple of days.

The move has triggered concerns among the UN and the development partners who are still waiting for an independent assessment of the Bhasan Char housing project.

Photo: Jamil Khan

The Tk 3,100-crore housing project, funded with public money, was undertaken after some 750,000 Rohingyas fled a brutal military campaign in Myanmar's Rakhine and took shelter in Cox's Bazar since August 2017. They joined some 300,000 other Rohingyas, who had fled previous waves of violence in Rakhine.