Doomsday boat claimed lives of 180 people
2022.12.26 01:28
Doomsday boat claimed lives of 180 people
Budrigannews.com – According to a statement made by the United Nations refugee agency to Reuters on Monday, the possibility of a boat carrying 180 Rohingya Muslims sinking will make 2022 one of the worst years for the community as refugees attempt to flee the appalling conditions in camps in Bangladesh.
Nearly one million Rohingya from Myanmar are living in crowded facilities in Bangladesh, a country with a majority of Muslims. Tens of thousands of them left their home country following a deadly crackdown by its military in 2017.
The majority of Rohingya in Myanmar, which is dominated by Buddhists, are denied citizenship and are regarded as illegal immigrants from South Asia.
Over the weekend, the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) said that it feared that a boat that left Bangladesh at the end of November was missing at sea, with all 180 people on board believed to be dead.
The UNHCR stated that the vessel, which lacked seaworthiness, may have begun to crack at the beginning of December prior to losing contact.
Already this year, it is believed that 200 Rohingya have perished or gone missing at sea. Babar Baloch, a spokesperson for the UNHCR, stated, “We hope against hope that the 180 missing are still alive somewhere out there.”
More than 700 Rohingya were reported missing or killed in the Andaman Sea and Bay of Bengal in 2014, according to the UNHCR.
Baloch described 2022 as “one of the worst years for dead and missing after 2013 and 2014,” noting that the number of people attempting to flee had returned to levels prior to the COVID-19 pandemic.
“Trends show the numbers going back to 2020, when more than 200 people died or were missing from the risky sea crossings made by over 2,400 people.”
Rights groups estimate that this year, there have been more than five times as many Rohingya leaving Bangladesh in boats as there were a year ago.
According to Baloch, it was not clear exactly where the boat with 180 people on board went missing, nor was it clear whether the removal of COVID restrictions in Southeast Asia, a popular destination for the Rohingya, had caused the influx of people.
Sayedur Rahman, 38, a Myanmar national who fled to Malaysia in 2012, claimed that among the missing were his wife, two sons aged 17 and 13, and a daughter aged 12.
“My family came to Bangladesh in 2017 to save their lives,” Rahman said, referring to the Rohingya migration from Myanmar that year.
Rahman stated, “But they are now all gone… Now I’m devastated.” We Rohingya are passed on to kick the bucket … on the land, adrift. Everywhere.”
Two Myanmar Rohingya activist groups reported earlier this month that a separate boat, which the UNHCR identified as a separate vessel, was stranded at sea for two weeks off the coast of India, where up to 20 people died of thirst or hunger. It was said that the boat, which had at least 100 people on board, was in Malaysian waters.
Some boats have made land or been rescued at sea in spite of the feared fatalities.
The International Organization for Migration released a statement on Monday stating that local community members assisted 57 male Rohingya who disembarked early on December 25 in Indonesia’s Aceh Besar district. It stated that the boat, which was only for men, is thought to have left Bangladesh and been at sea for nearly a month.
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In November, two boats carrying 230 Rohingya refugees, including women and children, arrived in Indonesia’s Aceh province. This month, the navy of Sri Lanka rescued 104 Rohingya who were stranded off the island’s northern coast in the Indian Ocean.
