At least 15 people
drowned and dozens are unaccounted for after a boat carrying Rohingya refugees
sank off southern Bangladesh early Tuesday, officials said.
Some 130 people — mainly women and children —
were packed on a trawler that was trying to cross the Bay of Bengal to reach
Malaysia, coast guard spokesman Hamidul Islam told AFP. Seventy people had so
far been rescued. Many of the 700,000-plus Rohingya Muslims who fled a military
crackdown in Myanmar in 2017 have tried to leave overcrowded refugee camps in
Bangladesh’s Cox’s Bazar district on boats headed for Malaysia. The boat,
barely 13 metres (40 feet) long, was one of two vessels attempting the
hazardous 2,000-kilometre (1,250-mile) journey before the monsoon season
starts. Four navy and coast guard boats were searching the seas near St
Martin’s island, officials said. “They were lured by traffickers,” said border
guard commander Faisal Hasan Khan. With few opportunities for jobs and education
in the refugee camps, thousands have attempted to reach other countries in
Southeast Asia.
Malaysia is the favoured destination for the
Rohingya as it is a Muslim-majority nation with a sizeable Rohingya diaspora. –
‘Tragedy waiting to happen’ – Shakirul Islam, a migration expert whose group
works with Rohingya to raise awareness against trafficking, said desperation in
the camps was making refugees want to leave. “It was a tragedy waiting to
happen,” he said. “They just want to get out, and fall victim to traffickers
who are very active in the camps.” Islam said that in the past two months
dozens of Rohingya had reported approaches from traffickers to his OKUP
migration rights group. Since last year, Bangladesh law enforcement agencies
have picked up over 500 Rohingya from rickety fishing trawlers or coastal
villages as they waited to board boats. Trafficking often increases during the
November-March period when the sea is safest for the small trawlers used by the
traffickers. At least seven suspected traffickers were shot dead in 2019 in
clashes with police. An estimated 25,000 Rohingya left Bangladesh and Myanmar
on boats in 2015 trying to get to Thailand, Malaysia and Indonesia. Hundreds
drowned when overloaded boats sank. Bangladesh and Myanmar signed a
repatriation deal to send back some Rohingya to their homeland, but none have
agreed to return because of fears for their safety.
Source: VANGUARD