Major accident in Andaman Sea: Boat filled with Bangladeshis-Rohingyas capsizes, 250 feared drowning

Port Blair, 14 April. Around 250 people, including children, are feared missing after a boat carrying Bangladeshi nationals and Rohingya refugees capsized in the Andaman Sea. The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) gave this information in a statement on Tuesday.

“The boat (trawler) had departed from Teknaf in southern Bangladesh and was heading to Malaysia,” the UNHCR statement said. It is being told that it sank due to strong winds, rough sea and more people in the boat than its capacity. There is a possibility of drowning of the people on the boat.

It is noteworthy that thousands of people of Rohingya, Myanmar’s persecuted Muslim minority community, risk their lives by crossing the sea every year to escape the oppression and civil war in their country. Often they use makeshift boats. The Rohingya people on board the boat were probably leaving huge camps built in Cox’s Bazar, Bangladesh.

More than one million refugees live in these camps, who were forced to flee Rakhine, the western state of Myanmar. These people live here in very bad conditions. In Rakhine state, there has been a fierce battle between the army and the ‘Arakan Army’ (an ethnic minority rebel group) for control of the area.

in the boat 280 people were riding

The exact reasons behind this latest incident are not clear yet, but according to initial information, there were 280 people on this boat and it had left Bangladesh on April 4. “This tragic incident reflects the serious consequences of protracted displacement and the absence of any lasting solution for the Rohingya people,” the UNHCR statement said.

Last year also two boats sank

The statement also said the incident “reminds us of the urgently needed efforts to address the root causes of displacement in Myanmar and create conditions for Rohingya refugees to return to their homes of their own free will, in safety and dignity.” The Andaman Sea extends along the western coasts of Myanmar, Thailand and the Malay Peninsula. Last year, UNHCR reported that 427 Rohingya people were feared dead at sea in two boat accidents off the coast of Myanmar in May.