Rohingya Refugee Crisis

An estimated 92,000 Rohingya people had been displaced because of the violence by January 2017; around 65,000 had fled from Myanmar into neighboring Bangladesh between October 2016 and January 2017, while 23,000 others had been internally displaced. In February 2017, the government of Bangladesh announced that it planned to relocate the new refugees and another 232,000 Rohingya refugees already in the country to Thengar Char, a sedimentary island in the Bay of Bengal. The island first appeared around 2007, formed from washed down silt from the Meghna River. The nearest inhabited land, Hatiya island is around 30 km away. News agencies quoted a regional official describing the plan as "terrible".

The move has received substantial opposition from a number of quarters. Human rights groups have described the plan as a forced relocation. Additionally, concerns have been raised about the living conditions on the island, which is low-lying and prone to flooding. The island has been described as "only accessible during winter and a haven for pirates".  It is nine hours away from the camps in which the Rohingya refugees currently live. On April 30, 2017 Sri Lanka intercepted and detained an India-origin boat of 32 Rohingya refugees off its northern coast after it entered Sri Lankan waters. In May 2017, Bangladesh detained 12 Rohingya people and 2 people smugglers who attempted to leave the country by boat for Malaysia. On August 14, 2017 India announced that it was to deport an estimated 40,000 Rohingya refugees including 14,000 of those registered with the U.N. refugee agency as well. In the months leading up to the announcement, a string of anti-Rohingya protests had been held in the country.