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During an attempt to escape a Bangladeshi island camp criticized by human rights groups, at least 27 people were missing after the ship sank.
Officials said that at least 27 Rohingya refugees disappeared after their boat sank while trying to escape a camp on an island in Bangladesh criticized by human rights groups.
Nearly 20,000 Rohingya have relocated to Bhasan Char Island, which has endured the full force of the hurricanes that sweep the Bay of Bengal every year.
Bangladesh eventually hopes to resettle 100,000 of its approximately 1 million Rohingya refugees to the island, removing them from the narrow settlements on the mainland.
But some Rohingya said they were forced to relocate, and thousands Protest against living conditions On the island in June.
After the incident, the UN Refugee Agency stated that it was “still concerned about reports that refugees were arrested and detained for trying to leave Bashanchar.”
Police said the small fishing boat sank after severe weather in the Bay of Bengal near the island, with 41 Rohingya on board.
“When it capsized late last night, there were refugees on board. About 14 of them returned unharmed,” Basanchar Island Police Chief Mah Alam told the Anadolu agency by phone.
He added that the joint rescue operation of the police, coast guard, navy and air force is still in progress to find missing persons.
The chief executive of the government of Bhasan Char, Sujit Kumar Chanda, told AFP that the missing included women and children.
Chanda said that to be safe, his father saved a two-year-old by holding the child above the water while swimming.
Bangladesh began resettling refugees to disputed island camps in November, saying that the refugee camps in the southeast of the country are overcrowded.
Police said that in recent months, many Rohingya fled the island and were arrested in coastal towns in the Chittagong area of Bangladesh.
Abdur Rahim, 27, who fled Bhashan Char a few months ago, said the lack of jobs on the island prompted people to flee.
“It’s horrible to live there. There is no chance to see relatives. It’s as if they kept us in jail but didn’t give us any chance,” he told AFP.
Amnesty International’s South Asian activist Saad Hamadi said that Bangladesh must “ensure that any relocation to the island is voluntary” and that refugees “have the right to move freely between the island and the mainland. Many of them have the right to move freely between the island and the mainland. Family and relatives”.
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