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Bangladesh rescues hundreds of Rohingya drifting at sea for nearly two months Bangladesh rescues hundreds of Rohingya drifting at sea for nearly two months
(about 16 hours later)
About 400 were on board, and more than 30 had died during perilous attempt to reach MalaysiaAbout 400 were on board, and more than 30 had died during perilous attempt to reach Malaysia
Bangladesh’s coastguard says it has rescued at least 382 “starving” Rohingya refugees floating in a large boat in the country’s territorial waters after nearly two months at sea. At least 30 Rohingya refugees died at sea, and almost 400 were rescued from a boat which had been adrift for over two months as they attempted to sail to safety in Malaysia, survivors have reported.
Acting on a tip-off, a patrol launched a three-day search for the boat, locating it on Wednesday night off its south-eastern coast, spokesman Lieutenant Shah Zia Rahman said. The 396 surviving refugees, who were mostly women and children, had set sail in a fishing trawler from the camps in Cox’s Bazar in Bangladesh in mid-February.
“We have rescued at least 382 Rohingya from a big overcrowded fishing trawler and brought them to a beach near [the coastal town of] Teknaf. They were starving,” Rahman said, adding that more than 30 had died on board. The refugee camp, one of the largest in the world, is home to over a million Rohingya who fled over the border from Myanmar, starting in August 2017, following a brutal army crackdown that the UN has described both as ethnic cleaning and akin to genocide.
“They were floating for 58 days. And over the last seven days it was moving in our territorial waters,” he said. Mohammad, a 40-year-old refugee who was among those rescued from the boat with his three family members, described the horror of being on the ship for 58 days. He said they had reached Malaysia, but been turned away.
The Dhaka Tribune local newspaper reported that they were thought to be from refugee camps on Bangladesh’s south-east coast, and were headed to Malaysia but turned back when that country implemented a strict coastal patrol due to the coronavirus pandemic. “Within a week or 10 days after setting sail we reached close to Malaysia,” Mohammad told the Guardian from the quarantine centre where he was being held. “But the Malaysian coast guard stopped our trawler. They would not let us get closer to the land. Our boatmen made several attempts to bypass the coast guard patrol and reach the shore. But, all attempts by our boatmen failed. We knew that because of the coronavirus outbreak in Malaysia the authorities became unusually strict and did not allow us to land there.”
Rahman said authorities would investigate the possibility that the refugees could also have come from the Rohingya homeland in Myanmar’s restive Rakhine state, where they are a persecuted Muslim minority. He said the boat had lingered close to the Malaysian shore for several days to try to sneak ashore, but without success, and turned back for Bangladesh.
Those rescued reported that 32 Rohingya died aboard and that their bodies were thrown in the sea, the official said. “We ran short of food and water,” said Mohammad. “Many children and women were crying. Around 30 people on the boat died because of getting no food and water and and we all started losing hope as the bodies of other refugees had to be thrown into the sea.”
“We have cordoned off the place where they have landed. We could not question them because of the fear they could be infected with the coronavirus,” he said. It took the coastguard three days to locate the boat in the Bay of Bengal after a tip-off. According to the coastguard, there were 182 women, 150 men and 64 children rescued from the boat who were severely malnourished, dehydrated and could barely walk when they landed. “They were at sea for about two months and were starving,” said Bangladesh coastguard spokesman Lieutenant Shah Zia Rahman.
Footage posted on Facebook by a local journalist showed mostly women and children, emaciated and standing on the beach. The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees confirmed in a statement that “around 30 or more refugees may have passed away at sea as the boat ran out of food, water and fuel during a nearly two months long journey at sea.”
A local government administrator said officials were still counting the rescued but that he feared the number could exceed 400. The Dhaka Tribune said the ship was packed with nearly 500 Rohingya. The rescued Rohingya were brought back to Cox’s bazar, where they were placed in quarantine to ensure they did not bring Covid-19 into the camps, a huge concern among authorities and NGOs. While there are still no reported cases in Cox’s, there is a fear that if it takes hold in the squalid, cramped camps where up to ten people live in a huts with no running water and where there are limited healthcare facilities and no ventilators, the spread will be uncontrollable and it will be difficult to treat.
Nearly a million Rohingya live in squalid camps near Bangladesh’s border with Myanmar, many fleeing the neighbouring country after a brutal military crackdown began in 2017. “We have cordoned off the place where they have landed,” said Rahman. “We could not question them because of the fear they could be infected with the coronavirus.”
With few opportunities for jobs and education in the camps, thousands have attempted to reach other countries such as Malaysia and Thailand. This was one of at least three boats carrying hundreds of Rohingya that have been rescued during an attempt to reach Malaysia. In early April, a boat was intercepted off the coast of the Malaysian island of Langkawi, carrying around 200 Rohingya, mainly women and children.
Since late last year, Bangladesh’s law enforcement agencies have picked up some 1,000 Rohingya from coastal villages and boats as they waited to board vessels bound for Malaysia. Noor Hossain, a Rohingya community leader from Balukhali refugee camp, said there was increasing desperation in the camps, as stricter lockdowns were imposed including a recent block on movement and mobile internet, which was enticing more refugees to reach out to traffickers to help them escape in search of a better life. Malaysia, which is a Muslim-majority country and has a large Rohingya community, is a popular destination.
“Many young and ambitious Rohingya refugees feel that in Bangladesh they face a grim future,” said Hossain. “In recent times, after the Bangladesh government imposed more restrictions on the Rohingyas and planned to relocate some of them to a dangerous uninhabited island [Bhasan Char], more and more Rohingya are willing to flee Bangladesh.”
Hossain said that it was also big business for traffickers and agents to traffic Rohingya women from the Cox’s Bazar camps, so they could be wives for Rohingya men already settled in Malaysia.
“Rohingya families can’t see an end to their plight and are increasingly willing to risk death or injury by making perilous journeys at sea in overcrowded, unsafe boats – often at the mercy of traffickers and criminal organisations – all for a chance at a better life,” said Athena Rayburn of Save the Children.
Amnesty International’s Biraj Patnaik said: “Having first fled crimes against humanity in Myanmar and then being turned away by Malaysia, they have nowhere left to go – a fact that is harrowingly demonstrated by the callous indifference of other governments that refuse to give them sanctuary.”