The United Nations has said it is concerned that 180 Rohingya refugees stranded for weeks in the Andaman Sea may have died, while there is hope that some of them have died. floating on the second crowded boat was rescued in Indonesia.
In a statement on Saturday, the United Nations refugee agency said it had received unconfirmed reports that the ship with 180 people on board, which left Bangladesh a few weeks ago, had begun to crack. in early December before potentially sinking. About a million Rohingya refugees have fled state repression and massacre in Myanmarliving in a refugee camp in Bangladesh.
“Relatives have lost contact. Final contacts assumed all were dead,” the agency said. “We hope that this is not the case.”
If the boat’s disappearance is confirmed, then 2022 will become one of the deadliest years in recent years for Rohingya refugees in the Andaman Sea and Bay of Bengal, bringing the year’s death toll to more than 400 people. At least 2,500 Rohingya refugees have died in these waters. dangerous waters of Southeast Asia since 2013, according to United Nations estimates.
“This is a deadly sea in the region; Babar Baloch, a spokesman for the United Nations refugee agency, said the number of people involved in the journey was small and the casualties were large. “Most of it is linked to inaction.”
With dire conditions in overcrowded refugee camps in Bangladesh and uncertain future, a large number of Rohingya families have made the perilous journey by sea to other countries in Southeast Asia.
UN Security Council, in a resolution last week“demanding an immediate end to all forms of violence” in Myanmar and demanding the resolution of “the root causes of the crisis in Rakhine State.” Thousands of Rohingya have faced violent death in the state after Myanmar’s military and allied militias increased their targeting of minorities in 2017; The United Nations has previously called the military’s actions there “a textbook example of ethnic cleansing.”
Last week’s resolution called for creating “the necessary conditions for the voluntary, safe, decent and sustainable repatriation of Rohingya refugees and internally displaced persons.”
Rohingya activists and refugee officials say that since November at least five boats have left Cox’s Bazar, the location of the main refugee camp in Bangladesh. While one person made it to Indonesia and two others were rescued by Sri Lanka and Vietnam, the fates of the two remained uncertain for weeks.
United Nations officials said their appeal to governments in the region to save one of those boats, with about 190 people on board, changed with each indication of its location.
At different times, the ship was discovered near Thailand, India and Sri Lanka. Finally, on Sunday morning, officials in Indonesia confirmed to the United Nations that 58 people on board had been rescued and brought ashore in Aceh, with initial information and media reports showing Fishermen are lifesavers. Indonesian officials could not be reached for confirmation and the fate of others on board remains unclear.
Mr Baloch, a spokesman for the refugee agency, said: “We can confirm 58 people have been rescued and brought ashore in Aceh, Indonesia. “Anxieties remain for the 130 people still out there on the brink of death in the deadly waters. Hopefully those lives will be saved soon too.”
The United Nations said the boat it feared was sinking may have left Bangladesh at the same time as the one rescued by Sri Lankan Navy last week.
Rohingya activists said the boat left on December 2, with 24 children out of 180 people on board. Their relatives have not been able to contact the boat carrying satellite phones since December 8.
Karan Deep Singh contribution report.
