Dhaka--Bangladesh plans to relocate thousands of Rohingya who have spent years in refugee camps near the Myanmar border to a southern island, an official said Wednesday, as the region faces a human-trafficking crisis.
The government has started planning the relocation to Hatiya island in the Bay of Bengal in a move backed by Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, said additional secretary Amit Kumar Baul.
"The relocation of the Rohingya camps will definitely take place. So far, informal steps have been taken according to the PM's directives," Baul, head of the government's Myanmar Refugee Cell, told AFP.
A Rohingya leader urged the government to rethink, saying the plan would only make life worse for the refugees -- many of whom have been languishing in the camps for years since they left Myanmar.
"We want the (Bangladesh) government and international organisations to resolve our issue from here," Mohammad Islam, a community leader in one of the camps, told AFP.
Bangladesh is home to 32,000 registered Rohingya refugees who are sheltering in two camps in the southeastern district of Cox's Bazar which borders Myanmar.
The Muslim Rohingya leave Myanmar largely to escape discriminatory treatment by the Buddhist majority.
The United Nations refugee agency, which has been assisting the refugees in the camps since 1991, said such a scheme would have to be voluntary to succeed.
AFP
