Some 100 Rohingya stranded in boat off India's coast, many feared dead

At least 100 Rohingya are stranded in a boat off India's Andaman Islands and at least are feared dead due to thirst, hunger, or drowning, reports cited Myanmar Rohingya activist groups as saying on Wednesday.

Chris Lewa, director of the Arakan Project, which works to support Myanmar’s Rohingya, said the boat was approached by five Indian ships late on Tuesday.

“We estimate that probably as many as 20 have died … some from hunger and thirst, and others jumped overboard in desperation. This is absolutely awful and outrageous.”

The boat, which is currently at the Bay of Bengal close to the Indian region of the Andaman and Nicobar Islands, has apparently been lost since its engine failed in late November.

Asia Pacific Refugee Rights Network’s Rohingya Working Group hoped the Indian Navy or coastguard will manage to rescue and disembark the boat as soon as possible. “These people have been adrift on a damaged boat for more than two weeks without food and water. We have heard that up to 16 people may have already died,” said Lilianne Fan, the group’s chair.

UNHCR spokesperson for Asia Babar Baloch pleaded with both Sri Lanka and India to assist in the rescue of people on board. “Quick action is needed to save lives and avoid further deaths,” Baloch said. “We repeat our warning that inaction from states to save lives is resulting in more human misery and tragedies with each passing day.”

The boat is believed to have been travelling to Malaysia from Bangladesh, where a million or so Rohingya Muslims who are a stateless minority and fled violence in their native Myanmar now reside in refugee camps.

Another boat, carrying more than 100 Rohingya, was rescued by Sri Lanka’s navy on the weekend.

Each year, many Rohingya risk their lives boarding rickety vessels to escape violence in Myanmar and squalor conditions in refugee camps in Bangladesh’s Cox’s Bazar district. Many attempt to reach Malaysia.

Earlier this month, the United Nations refugee agency issued an alert over a sharp rise in the number of people attempting to cross the Andaman Sea from Bangladesh and Myanmar. The UN statement said the Southeast Asia waterway is one of the most hazardous in the world and that more than 1,900 people had already made the journey since January this year – six times more than the number of people who tried to cross in 2020.

At least 920,000 Rohingya refugees remain stuck in crowded conditions in refugee camps in Cox’s Bazar. This includes about 750,000 Rohingya who were forced to leave their homeland amid the military-led crackdown against their community in 2017.

Thousands were killed, raped, tortured, or arrested in the crackdown, perpetrated with “genocidal intent,” according to the United Nations, which has described the community as the most persecuted minority in the world.

The Rohingya, who have lived in Myanmar for generations, are denied citizenship and are branded illegal immigrants from Bangladesh, which likewise denies them citizenship.

Several repatriation attempts have failed, with the Rohingya refusing to go home until Myanmar gives the largely Muslim minority guarantees of security. Rohingya leaders say they want to go back to their original villages in Rakhine.

Bangladeshi authorities have become increasingly impatient about hosting the refugees while criticizing the rest of the international community for not providing more assistance.

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