Families are anxiously seeking information about their relatives after a boat carrying approximately 280 Rohingya refugees and Bangladeshi migrants capsized in the Andaman Sea earlier this month. The vessel, en route to Malaysia from Bangladesh, sank due to adverse weather conditions and overcrowding. Nine individuals have been rescued, but the fate of the majority remains unknown, casting a shadow of gloom.
In this file picture taken May 14, 2015 Rohingya migrants stand and sit on a boat drifting in Thai waters off the southern island of Koh Lipe in the Andaman sea. Families were frantically searching for news of their relatives today after a boat carrying about 280 Rohingya refugees and Bangladesh i migrants capsized in the Andaman Sea earlier this month. — AFP picand enjoy FREE RM10 & when you sign up using code VERSAMM10 with min. cash of RM100 today! T&Cs apply.
DHAKA, April 15 — Families were frantically searching for news of their relatives today after a boat carrying about 280 Rohingya refugees and Bangladeshi migrants capsized in the Andaman Sea earlier this month. The boat, which left the southern Bangladeshi port of Teknaf on April 4 and was on its way to Malaysia, sank due to heavy winds, rough seas and overcrowding, according to the United Nations. Bangladeshi authorities said nine people had been rescued. One survivor told AFP the boat sank nearly 10 days ago, casting gloom over the fate of the missing.
“I now have 70-80 photos on my mobile phone from people asking for updates on the victims,” 40-year-old Rafiqul Islam, one of the survivors, told AFP today. Islam, who sustained burn injuries as oil spilled from the trawler, said he was lured by traffickers who promised him a job in Malaysia. The Rohingya on board the boat were likely leaving huge camps in Bangladesh’s Cox’s Bazar, where more than a million refugees forced to flee war-torn Myanmar’s Rakhine state live in squalid conditions.
Rakhine state has been the scene of fierce fighting between the military and the Arakan Army, an ethnic minority rebel group. The Rohingya undertake perilous sea journeys every year in search of better living conditions, travelling aboard rickety boats often operated by trafficking networks. Bangladesh police said Wednesday they had arrested six people on suspicion of human trafficking over the incident. “We are investigating each individual’s liability in the tragic incident,” Saiful Islam, officer?in?charge of Teknaf police station, told AFP.
At the Kutupalong Rohingya camp, Jasim Uddin, 34, said he had travelled to Rafiqul Islam’s home after losing contact with his brother. “My brother paid 350,000 taka for the trip to Malaysia to a contractor who is now avoiding us,” he told AFP.
Rohingya representatives warned that worsening poverty and food aid cuts were likely to drive more refugees to undertake dangerous sea travel. Since April 1, the UN World Food Programme has reduced monthly assistance for large sections of the over one million Rohingya refugees in Bangladesh. “Human trafficking has never stopped, and in the near future it will escalate without a doubt as the food aid cuts remain in place,” Sayed Ullah, president of the United Council of Rohingya, told AFP.
The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees said yesterday the latest incident reflected the “dire consequences of protracted displacement and the absence of durable solutions for the Rohingya”. — AFP
Rohingya Migrant Boat Capsizes Andaman Sea Human Trafficking Bangladesh
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