DHAKA, APR 15 : Around 250 people, including children, are feared lost after a trawler packed with Rohingya refugees and Bangladeshi nationals sank in the Andaman Sea amid rough weather and overcrowding, the UN announced Tuesday.
The vessel left Teknaf, Bangladesh, on April 4 bound for Malaysia with about 280 aboard. Heavy winds and overload caused it to capsize, said UNHCR, highlighting the Rohingya’s desperate plight—fleeing Myanmar’s repression, civil war, and squalid Cox’s Bazar camps housing over a million.
Bangladesh Coast Guard rescued nine on April 9 near the Andaman Islands, including one woman, via the ship M.T. Meghna Pride, which spotted people clinging to drums and logs (per Lt Cdr Sabbir Alam Sujan).
Survivor Rafiqul Islam, 40, told AFP traffickers promised Malaysian jobs. He described deaths in the hold, oil burns, four days at sea, and 36 hours floating before rescue.
UNHCR blames protracted displacement, Rakhine violence between Myanmar military and Arakan Army, and camp restrictions on jobs/education for fueling risky voyages. It urges addressing Myanmar root causes for safe Rohingya returns.
Malaysia hosts millions of undocumented Asian migrants in construction and agriculture, but trafficking syndicates’ overloaded boats often prove deadly. Last year, 427 Rohingya died in two Myanmar coast wrecks.
