Transfer of Rohingya to controversial island begins

Reluctant move: Relatives of Rohingya refugees gathering outside the transit camp before the start of the first mass relocation to an island, in Ukhia, Bangladesh. — AFP

THE NATION began transferring several hundred Rohingya refugees yesterday to what the UN and rights groups worry is a dangerous low-lying island prone to cyclones and floods.

Almost a million Rohingya – most of whom fled a military offensive in neighbouring Myanmar in 2017 – live in a vast network of squalid camps in south-east Bangladesh.