Radio Free Asia
2021-08-18
Roh Sana Ullah, 35, lies in a room after being rescued a day earlier from a boat that sank in the Bay of Bengal, Aug. 15, 2021.
AP
Bangladeshi authorities said Wednesday they had recovered the bodies of 11 Rohingya who drowned in the Bay of Bengal after their boat capsized in bad weather as they tried to escape from an island housing refugees over the weekend.
A search was going on for 15 other Rohingya still missing from the boat after it sank off Bhashan Char Island on Saturday, said Lt. M. Abdur Rauf, a Coast Guard public relations officer. Twelve others were rescued by local fishermen, who brought the survivors back to the island later that day.
“Seven bodies including six minors were recovered from the Chittagong part of the sea on Tuesday while four other bodies were recovered two days earlier,” Abdur Rauf told BenarNews, an RFA-affiliated online news service, adding he did not know when joint rescue efforts by the Coast Guard, Navy, and police would end or if they would be changed to a recovery mission.
