The killing of a Rohingya refugee boat off the Indian coast in the Bay of Bengal: Emergency medical attention is needed to save lives
At least 160 people are on the verge of being killed at sea, after their boat was stranded off the Indian coast for more than three weeks.
Several passengers are believed to have died, according to Mohammed Rezuwan Khan, whose sister and niece were on the boat. CNN is unable to verify the deaths.
The boat has been adrift in the Bay of Bengal since late November when its engine cut out.
It is believed to have traveled from Bangladesh, a country where around 1 million muslims are living in refugee camps because they fled violence in their native country.
“Quick action is needed to save lives and avoid further deaths,” Baloch said. We warn that the inaction from states is leading to more human misery and tragedies each day.
A group of Southeast Asian lawmakers urged neighboring countries to rescue the boat in a statement.
The refugees’ voyage began on November 25 from the overcrowded refugee camps of Cox’s Bazaar, where conditions are dire and women are at risk of sexual assault and violence.
The camps have swelled over the past five years as hundreds of thousands of Rohingya fled a brutal campaign of killing and arson by the Myanmar military in western Rakhine state.
Life at the camps has its own dangers. Fires are frequent and have destroyed hundreds of homes, while floods during the monsoon season often wipe out the poorly built huts.
Rescue of the stranded boat of a Rohingya refugee in Aceh, Indonesia, according to the UNHCR
Khan said his sister was in search of a better life for her daughter, and decided to attempt the dangerous sea journey out of Bangladesh on November 25.
Some on the stranded boat are so desperate for water they are drinking it from the ocean.
Rahan Uddin said his 17-year-old brother was also on the boat, having boarded in the hope of finding a job and earning enough money to help with his ailing parents’ medical bills.
In December last year, Indonesia agreed to help repair a stranded boat packed with more than 100 Rohingya refugees off its coast, but did not allow its passengers to seek refuge in the country.
Then on Monday, 185 people – including many women and children – were rescued in Aceh, Indonesia, according to Babar Baloch, an Asia spokesperson for the United Nations’ refugee agency (UNHCR).
The dehydrated and exhausted people in the distressing video are crying for help.
A young mother with a young daughter and a young boy trying to earn enough money to buy medicines for his ailing parents were among the passengers.
According to the UN refugee agency, 58 people from the boat were thought to have been rescued on Sunday. On Monday, the remaining surviving passengers arrived on shore, he added.
Paramedics from three local clinics are taking care of the ill people, according to the head of the disaster management agency.
The Indonesian Rohingya Refugees’ Journey in the Light of a “Borneboat” Arrival at Muara Tiga
The second boat also started its journey in late November, and began to break apart in early December, UNHCR said in a statement, citing unconfirmed reports.
If reports of the 180 feared dead are confirmed, it would make this year one of the deadliest for the persecuted group seeking refuge in a third country, Baloch said.
PIDIE, Indonesia — A United Nations agency is seeking information about the voyage of over 100 Rohingya Muslim refugees who landed on an Indonesian beach this week, and warned Tuesday that there will likely be more.
At least 185 men, women and children disembarked from a rickety wooden boat Monday at dusk on Ujong Pie beach at Muara Tiga, a coastal village in Aceh’s Pidie district, said local police chief Fauzi, who goes by a single name.
The UN High Commissioner for Refugees would provide language translations and counseling for members of the group of 190 who were reported by the U.N. to be drifting in a small boat.
He said that it was possible that refugees would find safe places if they had continued conflict in their country.
Chris Lewa, the director of the Arakan Project, which works in support of Myanmar’s Rohingya, confirmed Tuesday that the boat that landed Monday on Ujong Pie beach was from the group of 190 Rohingya.
“But we will continue to search for further information to ensure the actual data,” Syukri told reporters Tuesday while visiting the Rohingya refugees at a school that was closed for the holiday season in Muara Tiga village.
The fourth and fifth boats “finally landed in northern part of Aceh, Indonesia, early Sunday and late afternoon on Monday,” Lewa said, after weeks of her organization pleading with south and southeast Asian countries to help.
Thousands of people, mostly members of the Muslim community of the state of Rakhine, fled to Bangladesh because of the killings and mass rapes committed by the security forces.