Police have rescued 135 Rohingyas, who were on their way to Malaysia illegally, from Sonadia Island of Maheshkhali Upazila in Cox’s Bazar.
The Rohingyas risked their life to go to Malaysia on an engine boat with help of some middlemen, Maheshkhali police said on Monday.
The middlemen had gathered them in Sonadia Island from Kutupalong Rohingya camp in Ukhiya, Md Rafiqul Islam, additional superintendent of police in Cox’s Bazar, told Dhaka Tribune.
He said: “On a tip-off, police conducted a raid in Sonadia Island and rescued the Rohingyas. They were trying to go to Malaysia on engine-run boats.”
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Police would send them back to the Rohingya camps where they came from, the official said.
On June 8, 2020, the Malaysian authorities detained 269 Rohingyas who arrived on a damaged boat off the coast at Langkawi. A second boat with an estimated 300 Rohingya was spotted near Thailand’s Koh Adang Island, according to the Malaysian Maritime Enforcement Agency.
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Both boats left from Bangladesh in February the same year, meaning that the hundreds of ethnic Rohingya on board have been at sea for four months, reported the Human Rights Watch.
Bangladesh is currently hosting more than 1.1 million Rohingyas. The majority of them came to Bangladesh in August 2017, fleeing persecution in their homeland of Rakhine state in Myanmar.
