An estimated 400 Rohingya Muslims believed to be aboard two boats adrift in the Andaman Sea without sufficient supplies could die if more is not done to rescue them, according to the UN refugee agency and aid workers.
The number of Rohingya Muslims fleeing by boat in a seasonal exodus – mostly from squalid, overcrowded refugee camps in Bangladesh – has risen since last year due to cuts in food rations and a spike in gang violence.
There are about 400 children, women and men who will face death if no action is taken to save these desperate souls, Babar Baloch, the agency's Bangkok-based regional spokesman, told the Associated Press.
The whereabouts of the other boat were unclear.
The boats apparently left from Bangladesh and were reportedly at sea for about two weeks, he said.
The captain of one of the boats, contacted by the AP, said he had 180 to 190 people on board. They had run out of food and water and the engine was damaged. The captain, who gave his name as Maan Nokim, said he feared all on board would die if they did not receive help.
On Sunday, Nokim said the boat was 320 kilometers (200 miles) off Thailand's west coast. A Thai navy spokesman, contacted on Monday, said he had no information about the boats.
The site is about the same distance from Indonesia's northernmost province of Aceh, where another boat carrying 139 people landed on Sabang island off the tip of Sumatra on Saturday, Baloch said. There were 58 children, 45 women and 36 men on the ship – the typical balance of those making the sea voyage, he said. Hundreds of others arrived in Aceh last month.
About 740,000 Rohingya Muslims have fled Buddhist Myanmar for camps in Bangladesh since August 2017, after a brutal counterinsurgency campaign devastated their communities. Myanmar's security forces have been accused of mass rapes, killings and the burning of thousands of Rohingya homes, and international courts are investigating whether their actions constituted genocide.
Most refugees who leave the camps by sea try to reach Muslim-dominated Malaysia in the hope of finding work there. Thailand rejects them or retains them. Indonesia, another Muslim-dominated country where many end up, also detains them.
Baloch said if the two drifting boats do not get help, the world could witness another tragedy like in December 2022 when a boat with 180 on board went missing in one of the darkest incidents in the region.
The aid group Save the Children said in a November 22 report that 465 Rohingya children had arrived in Indonesia by boat last week and the number of refugees taking to the sea had increased by more than 80%.
It says more than 3,570 Rohingya Muslims have left Bangladesh and Myanmar this year, up from almost 2,000 in the same period of 2022. Of those who left this year, 225 are known to have been killed or missing, while many others remain unaccounted for is being held.
The desperate situation of Rohingya families forces them to take unacceptable risks in search of a better life. These perilous journeys show that many Rohingya refugees have lost all hope, Sultana Begum, the group's humanitarian policy and advocacy manager, said in a statement.
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