Myanmar: More than 500 feared dead in capsized refugee boats

KYIV (TIP): More than 500 people are feared dead after reports that two boats carrying members of Myanmar’s persecuted Rohingya minority have capsized in the Bay of Bengal, officials said Thursday, July 16.
According to preliminary information, the two boats left Myanmar’s western state of Rakhine in late June carrying mostly Rohingya passengers, including some who had traveled from refugee camps across the border in Bangladesh, according to a statement from the International Organization for Migration and the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees.
One boat, believed to have been carrying around 250 people, lost contact shortly after departure. A second boat, reportedly carrying 280 people, is believed to have sunk off Myanmar’s Ayeyarwady coast on July 8.
“While the incidents and casualty figures have yet to be officially confirmed, UNHCR and IOM are gravely concerned by the potentially devastating loss of life,” the agencies said.
Acting police Brig. Gen. Soe Lin Aung, the spokesperson for Myanmar’s Ministry of Home Affairs, declined to comment. Spokespeople for Myanmar’s president and the Ayeyarwady region’s government did not respond to requests for comment.
The Rohingya, who have in recent years fled both Myanmar and Bangladesh’s squalid refugee camps by the thousands, typically avoid such boat journeys at this time of year, when monsoons are frequent and conditions at sea are particularly dangerous. The UNHCR and IOM noted this in their statement, saying that recent torrential rain and flooding across the region would have made such journeys especially risky.
Around 1.2 million stateless, predominantly Muslim Rohingya remain trapped in overcrowded refugee camps in Bangladesh after fleeing waves of violence by Myanmar’s security forces.
The refugees have no way to safely return to Myanmar, where the military that killed thousands of Rohingya in 2017 during what the United States declared a genocide remains in charge of their homeland. The Rohingya still living in Myanmar face severe restrictions and many are confined to internment camps.
Steep cuts to foreign aid by the U.S. and other countries have led to ration cuts in Bangladesh’s refugee camps, while the ruling military and an ethnic armed organization in Rakhine have fought for control of the region. Source: AP