Desperate Rohingya Drown While Fleeing Remote Bangladesh Island 

More than two dozen Rohingya are missing and feared drowned after their boat sank August 14 in the Bay of Bengal while they were fleeing a refugee settlement located on a remote Bangladeshi island. 

The refugees, living on the island of Bhasan Char, have long said they do not want to live there, and the drowning incident underscores their desperation to flee the island.  The Rohingya who drowned were apparently trying to sneak back to Cox’s Bazar where they had lived in the world’s largest refugee camp, before being relocated to Bhasan Char, police and other officials said.    “We are devastated that reportedly many passengers, including women and children, have tragically drowned. The confirmed number [of the drowned] is not yet known,” Hannah Macdonald, a spokesperson for the United Nations Refugee Agency (UNHCR), told VOA in an emailed statement.