A Boat Carrying Rohingya Refugees Sinks in Bay of Bengal, 17 Dead

Dhaka, MINA – A boat capsized in bad weather in the Bay of Bengal earlier this week, leaving at least 17 Rohingya refugees dead, aid workers in Myanmar said.

Volunteers said on Thursday, eight people were rescued from the ship, which was bound for Malaysia. Al Jazeera reported.

“We found bodies starting from Aug. 7,” said Min Htal Wah, chairman of the Shwe Yaung Metta Foundation, a rescue organization based in Myanmar’s coastal Rakhine state.

“In three days, we found 17 bodies. We found some people still alive,” he said, adding that 10 women were among the dead.

A Rohingya aid worker in Maungdaw township on the border with Bangladesh said the boat had departed in bad weather, and about 500 others were still hoping to cross into Malaysia.

Nearly one million Rohingya live in crowded conditions in Bangladesh, among them those who fled a deadly crackdown in 2017 by the Myanmar military. The Myanmar military denies committing crimes against humanity.

Records say more than 3,500 Rohingya in 39 boats will attempt to cross the Andaman Sea and Bay of Bengal in 2022, according to January data from the UN Refugee Agency.

At least 348 Rohingya died or went missing at sea last year, the agency said, and called for a regional response to stop further drownings.

The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees said calls were being made to maritime authorities in the region “to rescue and disembark people in distress, as many ships have been adrift for weeks on end”.

Amnesty International has likened the living conditions of the Rohingya people in Rakhine state to “apartheid”.

Myanmar is facing charges of genocide at the UN’s top court after its mass exodus.

Bangladesh and Myanmar have discussed efforts to begin repatriating Rohingya refugees to their homeland.

A US rights envoy in Bangladesh said in July that conditions were not safe for the return of ethnic Rohingya refugees to Myanmar.

The funding cuts forced the UN food agency to cut rations to Rohingya refugee camps in Bangladesh twice this year.

A typhoon hit Rakhine in May and the military government has blocked international efforts to deliver aid.

Myanmar has been in turmoil since Aung San Suu Kyi’s civilian government was toppled in a military coup in February 2021, ending its brief period of democracy. (T/RE1/P2)

Mi’raj News Agency (MINA)