About 250 missing after boat carrying Rohingya refugees capsizes in Andaman Sea | Rohingya
Nearly 250 people are missing after a boat carrying Rohingya refugees and Bangladeshi citizens capsized in the Andaman Sea, according to the UN refugee and migration agency.
Agencies reported that the trawler carrying more than 250 men, women and children sank due to harsh weather conditions and overcrowding. It had left Teknaf in southern Bangladesh and was heading towards Malaysia.
“The trawler reportedly sank due to high winds, rough seas and overcrowding,” the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) said in a statement on Tuesday. he said.
Thousands of Rohingya, Myanmar’s persecuted Muslim minority, risk their lives every year by fleeing oppression and civil war in the country. They usually travel by sea on makeshift boats.
The people on that boat were likely leaving large camps in Cox’s Bazar in southeastern Bangladesh, where more than a million refugees who were forced to flee Myanmar’s western state of Rakhine live in squalid conditions.
Rakhine has been the scene of violent clashes between the army and ethnic minority rebel group the Arakan Army over control of the region.
The exact circumstances surrounding the latest incident were unclear, but preliminary information indicated that the ship was carrying approximately 280 people and left Bangladesh on April 4.
The Bangladesh Coast Guard (BCG) said one of its Indonesia-bound ships managed to rescue nine people, including a woman, from the sea on April 9.
“Bangladesh flag carrier MT Meghna Pride… detected several individuals floating in the sea using drums and logs and rescued them from deep waters near the Andaman Islands,” BCG spokesperson Lt. Cdr Sabbir Alam Sujan told Agence France-Presse.
“This tragedy highlights the devastating human cost of prolonged displacement and the lack of durable solutions for the Rohingya,” UNHCR and the International Organization for Migration said.
For years, many Rohingya have boarded unsafe wooden boats to reach neighboring countries, including Malaysia, Indonesia and Thailand, to escape persecution in Myanmar or overcrowded refugee camps in Bangladesh.
Rafiqul Islam, one of the survivors, told AFP he was put on the boat by smugglers who promised him work in Malaysia.
“A few of us were kept in the waiting area of the trawler; some of us died there. The oil spilled from the trawler burned me,” said 40-year-old Islam, adding that the ship sailed for four days before capsizing.
“We remained afloat for approximately 36 hours until a ship rescued us from deep water.”
The organizations called on the international community to increase and sustain life-saving assistance to Rohingya refugees in Bangladesh, as well as support to Bangladeshi host communities.
In 2017, Myanmar armed forces launched an offensive that forced at least 730,000 Rohingya from their homes and into Bangladesh; Murders, gang rapes and arson were described here. The UN investigative mission concluded that the military offensive in 2017 involved “acts of a genocidal nature”.
Buddhist-majority Myanmar denies genocide and says the UN mission is not objective or credible.
Agence France-Press and Reuters contributed reporting
