About 5,000 Rohingya refugees are believed to have drowned at sea over the past decade. “It is sad that the Andaman Sea and the Bay of Bengal have become an unknown graveyard for thousands of desperate Rohingya refugees.” Said unhcr Spokesperson Babar Baloch speaking in Geneva.
Since 2012, approximately 200,000 Rohingya refugees have risked their lives on dangerous sea journeys to escape suffering and persecution. In 2017, millions of Rohingya fled Myanmar for Bangladesh amid persecution.Textbook example of ethnic cleansing“Until then UN human rights chiefZeid Ra’ad Al-Hussein.
Earlier this week, UNHCR reported that hundreds of Rohingya were missing, believed to have drowned after a shipwreck on April 8 in the Andaman Sea, off the coast of the country where many of the persecuted minority community live in Bangladesh.
It is not safe to return to Myanmar
Mr Baloch stressed, “While most Rohingya refugees wish to return to Myanmar if they receive voluntary, dignified and safe return conditions, the ongoing conflict, persecution and absence of citizenship prospects actually give them little hope.”
He added, “No one would put their family on a risky boat knowing that the chances of survival are really low if there is no sense of desperation. If there is no hope, we fear that more people could lose their lives.”
With no clear end to these deadly sea crossings, UNHCR hopes that by marking the record death toll the world will “recognize what the Rohingya are going through inside Myanmar and in refugee camps and in the wider region and move forward to come up with solutions for desperate Rohingya refugees, so that we do not see 2026 become another deadly year”.
