Dhaka, Dec 4(UNI) Bangladeshi authorities on Friday began the process of relocating thousands of Rohingya refugees to a remote island despite concerns about their safety and against their consent, rights groups claimed.

According to a BBC report about 1,600 refugees were transported on Friday towards Bhasan Char, a flood-prone island in the Bay of Bengal, which Bangladesh claimed was being carried out after getting their consent.

Bangladesh's claims run contrary to what the Rohingya refugees had told the BBC in October, that they did not want to be relocated to the island.

Several rights groups raised concerns that many being shifted to the island on Friday were being moved against their will.

Human Rights Watch said it had interviewed 12 families whose names were on transport lists but who had not volunteered to go. The United Nations said it had been given "limited information" about the relocations and was not involved.

However, Bangladesh's foreign minister Abdul Momen said on Thursday night that the government "was not taking anyone to Bhasan Char forcibly. We maintain this position".

The Rohingya have fled Myanmar after a military crackdown which began three years ago in which UN investigators say as many as 10,000 people were killed and more than 730,000 forcibly displaced.

Thousands of them have since been living in Cox's Bazar, a sprawling refugee camp inside neighbouring Bangladesh.

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