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By AFP
At the very least 17 folks drowned when a ship carrying Rohingya refugees fleeing Rakhine State broke up at sea this week, rescuers stated Thursday.
Hundreds of Rohingya threat their lives every year making perilous sea journeys from camps in Bangladesh and Myanmar to attempt to attain Muslim-majority Malaysia and Indonesia.
Byar La, a rescuer from the Shwe Yaung Metta Basis in Rakhine-s capital Sittwe, stated greater than 50 folks have been considered on the boat heading for Malaysia when it acquired into hassle in heavy seas on Sunday evening.
“We discovered 17 lifeless our bodies… as of yesterday,” he advised AFP.
“We discovered eight males alive. Police have taken them for questioning.”
Rescuers are nonetheless looking for these unaccounted for, he stated, though the precise quantity on board will not be identified.
Rakhine in Buddhist-majority Myanmar is dwelling to round 600,000 Rohingya Muslims, who’re thought of migrants from Bangladesh and are denied citizenship and freedom of motion.
Lethal sea crossings
Greater than 3,500 Rohingya in 39 vessels tried crossings of the Andaman Sea and the Bay of Bengal in 2022, up from 700 the earlier yr, in response to the United Nations refugee company’s January information.
At the very least 348 Rohingya died or went lacking at sea final yr, the company stated, calling for a regional response to cease additional drownings.
The United Nations Excessive Commissioner for Refugees says requires maritime authorities within the area “to rescue and disembark folks in misery have gone unheeded with many boats adrift for weeks”.
Amnesty Worldwide likens the residing circumstances of Rohingya folks in Rakhine state to “apartheid”.
A Myanmar navy crackdown in 2017 pressured some 750,000 Rohingya to flee Rakhine for Bangladesh amid widespread accounts of homicide, arson and rape.
Myanmar is going through genocide accusations on the UN high courtroom following the mass exodus.
Bangladesh and Myanmar have mentioned efforts to start repatriating Rohingya refugees to their homeland.
A high United States rights envoy in Bangladesh stated in July circumstances stay unsafe for the return of ethnic Rohingya refugees to Myanmar.
Funding cuts pressured the UN meals company to chop rations to Rohingya refugee camps in Bangladesh twice this yr.
A cyclone ravaged Rakhine in Could and the navy junta has blocked worldwide efforts to ship help.
Myanmar has been in chaos since Daw Aung San Suu Kyi’s civilian authorities was toppled in a navy coup in February 2021, ending its temporary interval of democracy.
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