Authorities in Bangladesh said Tuesday that they want to start relocating thousands of Rohingya refugees to a Bay of Bengal island soon from crammed camps near the border with Myanmar, from where they fled.
Top government administrator in Cox's Bazar, Kamal Hossain, said they listed 100 families willing to move to Bhasan Char, an island hours by boat from the mainland.
The government has said it will relocate 100,000 refugees to the island in phases.
Hossain said they wanted to start the relocations in late November or in December.
"Our government policy regarding the Rohingya refugees is no force will be used to handle them. We have long been working with them for confidence building for the relocation," Hossain said.
"I have a list of 100 families comprising of some 7,000 refugees."