At least 250 people, including Rohingya refugees and Bangladeshi nationals, have gone missing after a boat capsized in the Andaman Sea, according to the United Nations’ refugee and migration agencies.
While details remained sketchy, Bangladesh Coast Guard spokesperson Lt Com Sabbir Alam Suzan told The Associated Press yesterday that nine people, including three Rohingya and six Bangladeshis, were rescued on April 9.
Suzan said the Bangladesh flag carrier MT Meghna Pride rescued the nine people when the crew found them floating at sea after the capsize.
When exactly the boat sank and the status of any search were unclear.
The UN high commissioner for refugees and the International Organization for Migration (IOM) in a joint statement on Tuesday said that the trawler departed from Teknaf in the southern Bangladeshi district of Cox’s Bazar carrying a large number of passengers.
Overcrowding, strong winds and rough seas caused the vessel to lose control and sink, the agencies said.
Shari Nijman, a UNCHR communication officer in Cox’s Bazar, said yesterday that the agency had no other updates.
Another coast guard media official told the AP by phone, on condition of anonymity in line with official policy, that the rescued people – eight men and one woman – were all safe after being handed over to the coast guard, who brought them to the police in Teknaf.
The official said the rescue was not part of any official search operation as it is outside Bangladesh territory, and that the crew of the MT Meghna Pride saved the people while it was on its way to Indonesia from Bangladesh’s Chittagong.
Rafiqul Islam, one of the survivors, said passengers endured four days and nights at sea as conditions rapidly deteriorated.
In an attempt to avoid patrols, traffickers forced passengers into cramped storage compartments meant for fish and nets.
“There was hardly any oxygen,” he said, adding that at least 30 people died from suffocation before the boat capsized.
“We could not breathe.”
When the boat overturned, hundreds were thrown into the sea. Islam estimated that around 240 people were still onboard at the time, including about 20 women and several children.
Only a handful survived.
Islam was among a small group who initially made it out alive.
A passing Bangladeshi oil vessel rescued four survivors, who then alerted the crew to others still in the water.
“They later found five more people,” he said.
UNHCR and IOM said the disappearance reflected the protracted displacement of Rohingya people and the absence of durable solutions.
They said ongoing violence in Myanmar’s Rakhine state has made the Rohingya’s safe return to Myanmar uncertain, while limited humanitarian assistance, as well as restricted access to education and employment in refugee camps, continue to push vulnerable Rohingya refugees to choose risky sea journeys, often based on false promises of higher wages and better opportunities abroad.
UNHCR and IOM urged the international community to strengthen funding and solidarity to ensure lifesaving assistance for Rohingya refugees in Bangladesh, which has sheltered more than a million Rohingya from Myanmar. — AP/Reuters
