More than 1,600 Rohingya head for remote Bangladesh island, navy official says

More than 1,600 Rohingya refugees sailed on Friday from Bangladesh's southern port of Chittagong for the remote island of Bhasan Char in the Bay of Bengal, a naval official said. The south Asian nation says moving the refugees will ease chronic overcrowding in camps that are home to more than 1 million Rohingya, members of a Muslim minority who have fled neighbouring Myanmar.

But refugees and humanitarian workers say have some of the Rohingya had been co-erced, despite government assertions that none would be forced to go. The naval official said the Rohingya were aboard seven boats, with two more carrying supplies.