By Ruma Paul
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Dhaka wants to move 100,000 refugees to Bhasan Char – a Bay of Bengal island hours by boat from the mainland – to ease overcrowding in its camps at Cox’s Bazar, home to more than 1 million Rohingya Muslims who have fled neighboring Myanmar.
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Some human rights groups have expressed concern over that plan because the island is remote and prone to devastation from cyclones. Many refugees oppose the move, which some human rights experts fear could spark a new crisis.
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Shah Kamal, secretary of Bangladesh’s Disaster Management Ministry, said the government was in talks with U.N. agencies to move the refugees to Bhasan Char, which it has been developing for the past three years.
“There is no reason to be concerned about floods because we have built storm surge embankment, with all other facilities,” he said.
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