BANGLADESH relocated 1,642 Rohingya refugees to an island in the Bay of Bengal today.

Bhashan Char is an island formed by silt from the Himalayas that only rose from the sea 20 years ago and has never been inhabited.

Though the Bangladeshi navy has built flood protection embankments, houses, hospitals and mosques on it and insists it is now safe, human rights organisations have raised fears it could still be submerged by an unusually violent storm and called on Dhaka not to proceed with the move.

The United Nations has called on Bangladesh to ensure that refugees transferred to the island have made a “free and informed decision to do so.”

Bangladesh says existing refugee camps in Cox’s Bazar, a city adjoining the 93-mile natural beach (the world’s longest) of the same name, are overcrowded and unsanitary.

Around one million Rohingya fled a brutal ethnic cleansing campaign by the Myanmar military in 2017 and the majority sought refuge in Bangladesh.