U.N deal offers no guarantees of free movement for Rohingya on island - leaked agreement

FILE PHOTO: A view of sheds and concrete structures built for thousands of displaced Rohingya from Myanmar on Bhasan Char island in Bangladesh, December 29, 2020. REUTERS/Mohammad Ponir Hossain/File Photo

(Reuters) -A deal for the United Nations to start work on a remote Bangladeshi island where the government has sent thousands of Rohingya refugees offers no guarantee they will be allowed to move freely to the mainland, according to a copy of the agreement.

The Bangladesh government has moved nearly 19,000 Rohingya refugees, members of a persecuted mostly Muslim minority from Myanmar, to Bhasan Char island from border camps, despite protests by refugees and opposition from rights groups, who have likened it to an island jail and said some relocations were involuntary.