552 more Rohingyas reach Bhasan Char: Navy

Another batch of 552 Rohingyas reached Bhasan Char in the eighth phase on Saturday.

With the latest batch, 61 more Rohingyas were returning to Bhasan Char after visiting their relatives in Cox's Bazar Rohingya camps, taking the total number to 613, according to the media wing of Chattogram Navy.

The Rohingyas, including 225 Rohingya men, 144 women and 244 children, left Patenga Boat Club for Bhasan Char in three naval ships around 10:15 am, the Navy said.

With this, the total number of Rohingya population at the Bhasan Char reached 19,030, said Nawsher Ibne Halim, in-charge of Bhasan Char Rohingya Camp.

Md Rafiqul Islam, officer-in-charge of Bhasan Char police station, said health workers conducted medical tests of the Rohingyas after they reached there around 1:20 pm.

After the Navy briefed them about life in Bhasan Char there, they were relocated to cluster 56 and 66, said Nawsher.

In the eighth phase on Friday, these two groups of Rohingya refugees left for Chattogram from Ukhiya and some more are slated to be relocated, said Shamsuddauja, additional refugee relief and repatriation commissioner in Cox's Bazar on Saturday.

But he could not confirm the exact number of the refugees to be relocated in this phase.

The 613 Rohingya refugees spent the Friday night at makeshift transit camps at BAF Shaheen College field after reaching Chattogram, he said.

On November 25, a batch of 379 more Rohingyas was relocated to Bhasan Char in the seventh phase after remaining suspended for eight months.

Bangladesh is currently hosting over 1.1 million Rohingyas in camps in Cox's Bazar and Bhasan Char. Most of them have come to this country since August 25, 2017, when the Myanmar military launched a brutal offensive targeting the Muslim ethnic minorities.