66 Rohingya missing after boat capsizes
Print Edition
A boat carrying almost 70 Rohingya Muslim refugees fleeing sectarian tensions capsized yesterday off Myanmar’s coast, police said, leaving dozens missing in treacherous seas.
The boat was believed to be taking the Rohingya from Myanmar’s western state of Rakhine to Malaysia, where thousands of members of the Muslim minority have sought sanctuary since violent clashes with Buddhists erupted last year.
“Altogether 66 people — 38 men and 28 women —- were on board when the boat capsized,” a police official in Rakhine said, adding six survivors had been found in the Bay of Bengal.
The missing are thought to have been IDPs (internally displaced persons) from the area around the state capital Sittwe, the officer added, requesting anonymity.
Around 140,000 people, the majority of them Rohingya, were displaced by two waves of violence between Buddhists and Muslims in Rakhine last year that killed 200 people.
Thousands of Rohingya have fled Myanmar since then, many paying smugglers for passage on rickety and overcrowded boats to Malaysia or further south, despite the dangers posed by rough seas in the Bay of Bengal.
Hundreds are believed to have died at sea so far this year.
In May nearly 60 Rohingya Muslims went missing after their boat sank after hitting rocks as a cyclone approached the bay.
Myanmar views its population of roughly 800,000 Rohingya as illegal immigrants from neighboring Bangladesh and denies them citizenship.
They are considered by the United Nations to be one of the world’s most persecuted minorities.
Rohingya boats frequently make landfall in Thailand, where those passengers caught by authorities are detained. According to rights groups they are vulnerable to exploitation by human traffickers.
The UN has raised fears that the number of Rohingya fleeing camps for the displaced will rise further this year.
It has urged Myanmar’s government to address the humanitarian crisis by easing sectarian divisions in the area and improving conditions in the squalid camps where tens of thousands languish.
The UN High Commissioner for Refugees in Geneva said on Friday it had received “worrying reports” that around 1,500 people had left the Rakhine area in recent days as the annual sailing season gets underway.
A UNHCR spokesman said that an estimated 28,000 people, mainly Rohingya, have left by sea since June last year, while “over 400 have died or gone missing” so far this year.
“The UNHCR fears that as the rainy season comes to an end and sailing season starts in earnest, more people could feel compelled to leave by boat, subjecting themselves to exploitation by smugglers,” he said.
- About Us
- |
- Terms of Use
- |
-
RSS - |
- Privacy Policy
- |
- Contact Us
- |
- Shanghai Call Center: 962288
- |
- Tip-off hotline: 52920043
- 娌狪CP璇侊細娌狪CP澶05050403鍙-1
- |
- 浜掕仈缃戞柊闂讳俊鎭湇鍔¤鍙瘉锛31120180004
- |
- 缃戠粶瑙嗗惉璁稿彲璇侊細0909346
- |
- 骞挎挱鐢佃鑺傜洰鍒朵綔璁稿彲璇侊細娌瓧绗354鍙
- |
- 澧炲肩數淇′笟鍔＄粡钀ヨ鍙瘉锛氭勃B2-20120012
Copyright 漏 1999- Shanghai Daily. All rights reserved.Preferably viewed with Internet Explorer 8 or newer browsers.
