The 149 Rohingyas, who were stopped from going to Malaysia illegally at Sonadia island, are on the way to Noakhali’s Bhasan Char.
Three buses carrying the displaced Myanmar nationals left for Chittagong on Tuesday, Additional Superintendent of Police in Cox’s Bazar, Md Rafiqul Islam told Dhaka Tribune.
On Monday, police rescued 149 Rohingyas, who were on their way to Malaysia illegally, from Sonadia Island of Maheshkhali Upazila in Cox’s Bazar.
Police first rescued 135 refugees and later detained 14, Additional SP Rafiqul said.
The Rohingyas risked their lives to go to Malaysia on an engine boat with help of some middlemen. The middlemen had gathered them in Sonadia Island from Kutupalong Rohingya camp in Ukhiya.
They then fled with the boat leaving the Rohingyas on the island, said police quoting the rescued Myanmar nationals.
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.
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.
More than 22,000 Rohingyas have been relocated to Bhasan Char, so far.
