Rohingya group shipped out

Transferred out: Rohingya refugees sitting on a Navy ship as they are relocated to the controversial flood-prone island Bhashan Char in the Bay of Bengal. — AFP

Four Bangladesh navy ships took the second and biggest group of Rohingya Muslims yet from crowded refugee camps to an uncertain future on a bleak island three hours from the mainland.

The government insisted that the 1,800 refugees, who have been in camps since fleeing a Myanmar military clampdown, want to start new lives on Bhashan Char, where 1,600 others arrived earlier this month.