Police arrested 20 Rohingyas, including women and children, after local residents detained them in Chattogram city early Monday.
Law enforcement officials confirmed that the group had fled the Bhasan Char refugee camp in Noakhali.
The arrested individuals include Manjurul Haque, 50, Yunus, 25, Tayeb, 32, Faruk, 25, Selim, 22, Gani Islam, 22, Rashida Begum, 24, Parvin Begum, 23, Asiya, 20, Nur Kaiyum, 18, and 10 children of different ages.
They were taken into custody at Anandabazar, near the Bay Terminal area under Bandar police station of the port city Monday morning.
Bandar police station officer-in-charge Kazi Muhammad Sultan Ahsan said that local residents noticed a suspicious group of men, women, and children in the Anandabazar area between 3:30am and 4:00am and alerted them.
Upon questioning, they admitted to being Rohingyas who had initially taken shelter in Cox鈥檚 Bazar鈥檚 Ukhia camps before being relocated to Bhasan Char, the police officer said.
He added that the group confessed to escaping Bhasan Char on Sunday with the help of traffickers. They travelled by trawler and were dropped off at Anandabazar鈥檚 shoreline at about 9:00pm.
鈥榃e initially attempted to send them back to Bhasan Char, but after consulting the authorities, they are being transferred to the Rohingya camps in Ukhia,鈥� Ahsan said.
This is not the first such incident. On December 19 last year, police arrested 25 Rohingyas from Parki Sea Beach in Anwara upazila, and on January 1 last, another 20 were apprehended in the same area. Both groups had also escaped from Bhasan Char.