Story highlights Myanmar's Rohingyas are considered among the most persecuted people in the world

The planned relocation site is an island 37 miles from the mainland

(CNN) A plan to send thousands of Rohingya refugees to an isolated island that is often submerged in water is "terrible and crazy," a Bangladeshi government official told CNN Tuesday.

The official did not want to be named because he fears reprisals.

The refugees are currently living in Bangladeshi camps, but under a new government directive they may be moved to Thengar Char Island.

Thengar Char, pictured here in January 2015, is a new marshy island which rose around eight years ago in Bay of Bengal near Hatiya island.

It's about 30,000 hectares in size, more than 37 miles from the mainland, officially uninhabited and mostly flooded during heavy rain or monsoon season, District Forest Officer Amir Hossain Chowdhury told CNN.

Mangrove trees have been planted on about a third of the island, Chowdhury added, as part of an ongoing development plan. The trees are designed to shore up the land, to make it more inhabitable.

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