It is a tragedy that has killed at least 17 people. In a boat, more than 50 migrants from the Rohingya minority are trying to flee Myanmar and head to Malaysia, rescue services said Thursday. On the night of Sunday to Monday, the sea is rough and the boat is experiencing severe difficulties, according to Byar La, a lifeguard of the Shwe Yaung Metta Foundation in Sittwe, Rakhine State, in the west of the country. A Buddhist-majority area that is home to about 600,000 Rohingya Muslims.
This ethnic group is considered intruders from Bangladesh, even though they have lived there for generations. They are denied citizenship and freedom of movement.
30 other missing persons
"We have found 17 bodies," the rescuer told AFP, adding that about 30 other people are missing. "We found eight men alive. The police took them away for questioning." According to him, rescuers are still trying to find those missing. But the exact number of passengers is not known.
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More than 3,500 Rohingya on 39 boats attempted to cross the Andaman Sea and Bay of Bengal in 2022, up from 700 the previous year, according to data from the UN refugee agency in January. At least 348 Rohingya died or went missing at sea last year. According to the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, appeals to maritime authorities in the region "to rescue and disembark people in distress have gone unheeded, with many boats adrift for weeks".
This event is reminiscent of another similar episode. In May 2022, the bodies of 14 people were found washed up on the shore of a beach in Myanmar. Members of the Rohingya minority who had wanted to flee the country by boat.
Campaign of repression
In 2017, a crackdown by the Burmese military forced some 750,000 Rohingya to flee the country to Bangladesh, following widespread reports of killings, arson and rape. The country faces genocide charges before the UN's highest court following the exodus.
Every year, thousands of Rohingya risk their lives making perilous sea journeys from camps in Bangladesh and Burma to reach Muslim-majority Malaysia and Indonesia.