Boat With at Least 160 Rohingya Refugees Is Stranded at Sea

The New York Times  

By Saif Hasnat and Karan Deep Singh
Dec. 20, 2022,

The U.N. called on countries in South Asia to rescue those on the vessel, who have been without food for weeks after leaving Bangladesh.

In November, another group of Rohingya refugees landed in a wooden boat in North Aceh, Indonesia.Credit...Zik Maulana/Associated Press

DHAKA, Bangladesh — The United Nations on Tuesday appealed to countries in South Asia to help rescue a boat carrying at least 160 Rohingya refugees stranded in the Andaman Sea without food for weeks.

The situation unfolded as Rohingya refugees continued to undertake the perilous journey from Bangladesh, where they have lived for years in squalid shanties since fleeing their homes in Myanmar in the aftermath of a military-perpetrated massacre.

Rohingyas in Camps and at sea: Crises and despair

Daily Times

Perspectives

Dr Mohammad Zaman

Tuesday, June 16, 2020

The Rohingya refugees are enduring crisis after crisis, including recent incidents at sea, where several stranded refugee families were afloat in the Bay of Bengal for weeks before being rescued by Bangladeshi coastguards and then quarantined at the controversial Bashan Char island. Faced with pressure from EU countries and other international bodies to rescue the stranded, Bangladesh’s Foreign Minister, AK Abdul Momen, expressed his enragement and asked EU countries to accept the refugees in their own countries “if they are so worried about their well-being.” He further said that Bangladesh was “neither obligated nor in a position to take any more Rohingya.”

Rohingya boat people being held for ransom at sea

Reuters
June 15, 2020

Malaysia has said it will not accept Rohingya refugees after tightening its borders due to Covid-19. (MMEA pic)

DHAKA: Rohingya refugees attempting to reach Malaysia by boat from Bangladesh are being held hostage by human traffickers who have demanded large ransoms from their relatives with threats of violence, according to several families and aid organisations.

About a dozen Rohingya refugees living in camps in Bangladesh told Thomson Reuters Foundation they had received phone calls from traffickers demanding money to stop relatives from being abandoned at sea and, in some cases, raped or killed.

Rohingya refugees sent to flood-prone Bangladesh island after months at sea

DW
2020.05.04

After being turned away by Malaysia, at least 500 Rohingya refugees facing persecution in Myanmar have spent two months at sea. Now one boat of 29 people has been sent to an "uninhabitable" Bangladeshi island.

After being turned away by Malaysia, at least 500 Rohingya refugees facing persecution in Myanmar have spent two months at sea. Now one boat of 29 people has been sent to an "uninhabitable" Bangladeshi island.

Rohingya tell of death at sea: Hundreds still adrift

REUTERS
Posted May 4, 2020
COX’S BAZAR, Bangladesh/BANGKOK (Reuters) - Rohingya refugee Shahab Uddin thought the wooden trawler he boarded in February would be his ticket out of a camp in Bangladesh to a better life in Malaysia.

 Rohingya refugee Shahab Uddin thought the wooden trawler he boarded in February would be his ticket out of a camp in Bangladesh to a better life in Malaysia.Instead, the voyage nearly killed him. Libby Hogan reports.

Instead, the voyage nearly killed him.

The 20-year-old was among almost 400 survivors pulled from the water, starving, emaciated and traumatized after the boat failed to reach Malaysia and spent weeks adrift before returning to Bangladesh in mid-April.

Free Rohingya Coalition decries pushing refugees back out to sea

The Daily Star

Star Online Report
April 29, 2020

A boat carrying suspected ethnic Rohingya migrants is seen detained in Malaysian territorial waters, in Langkawi, Malaysia on April 5, 2020. File Photo: Malaysian Maritime Enforcement Agency/Handout via Reuters

Pushing hundreds of starving and persecuted Rohingya refugees back out to the sea in the full knowledge that they have no safe place of refuge elsewhere are fundamental violations of their human rights, said Free Rohingya Coalition, a global network of Rohingya survivors and activists, today.

It said it is deeply troubled by the news reports that a number of Asian countries, specifically Malaysia, Thailand and Bangladesh, are pushing starving Rohingya refugees on boats back out to dangerous waters after refusing disembarkation on their shores.

Rohingya stranded at sea, Bangladesh says not its responsibility

Aljazeera  

Faisal Mahmud

2020.04.25

Rights groups urge Dhaka to allow some 500 Rohingya stuck in the Bay of Bengal to come ashore.

According to the United Nations refugee agency, UNHCR, the stranded Rohingya might "have been at sea for weeks without adequate food and water" [EPA-EFE/Malaysia Maritime Enforcement Agency handout]

Dhaka, Bangladesh - The Bangladesh government has refused to allow some 500 Rohingya refugees stranded on board two fishing trawlers in the Bay of Bengal to come ashore, drawing criticism from rights groups.

Foreign Minister AK Abdul Momen told Al Jazeera on Saturday that the Rohingya refugees, who are believed to have been at sea for weeks, are "not Bangladesh's responsibility."