Around 250 individuals have been missing after a boat carrying Rohingya refugees and Bangladeshi nationals capsized in the Andaman Sea, the United Nations’ refugee and migration agencies mentioned in a joint assertion on Tuesday.
The UN agencies mentioned the trawler carrying round 250 males, girls and youngsters reportedly sank resulting from heavy winds, tough seas and overcrowding. It had departed from Teknaf in southern Bangladesh and was certain for Malaysia.
“This tragedy highlights the devastating human cost of protracted displacement and the continued absence of durable solutions for the Rohingya,” mentioned the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, and the International Organization for Migration.
For years, many of Myanmar’s Rohingya Muslim minority have launched into rickety picket boats to attempt to attain neighbouring international locations, together with Malaysia, Indonesia and Thailand, in a bid to flee persecution in Myanmar or overcrowded refugee camps in Bangladesh.
The agencies referred to as on the worldwide neighborhood to step up and maintain funding for lifesaving help for Rohingya refugees in Bangladesh as properly as help for Bangladeshi host communities.
In 2017, Myanmar’s armed forces launched an offensive that pressured not less than 730,000 Rohingya from their properties and into neighbouring Bangladesh, the place they recounted killings, mass rape and arson. A UN fact-finding mission concluded the 2017 navy offensive had included “genocidal acts”.
Buddhist-majority Myanmar has denied genocide, and says the UN fact-finding mission was not goal or dependable.