"Human Rights Watch has called on Bangladesh to move more than 300 Rohingya refugees, including children, to the camps in Cox's Bazaar district, more than two months after they were quarantined on a small flood-prone island in the Bay of Bengal. The Rohingya were rescued by the Bangladesh navy in early May after being stranded at sea for weeks, and sent to Bhashan Char island - a silty strip of land off the southern coast that is vulnerable to monsoon storms. Bangladesh has said the 308 refugees were sent to the island rather than the camps in Cox's Bazar because authorities were afraid they might have the highly infectious disease COVID-19. "Bangladesh authorities are using the pandemic as an excuse to detain refugees on a spit of land in the middle of a churning monsoon sea while their families anxiously pray for their return," Brad Adams, Asia director of HRW, said in a statement on Thursday. "The government is inexplicably delaying aid workers' access to support the refugees with immediate care, and refusing to reunite them with their families in the Cox's Bazar camps." According to the US-based rights group, the quarantined refugees do not have adequate access to food, clean drinking water or medical care. Some have also alleged being beaten up and mistreated by the authorities, it said..."