Rohingya Refugee Boat Sinks off Indonesia, More than 70 Dead and Missing

Five people, including the ship’s captain and crew, fled when the sinking began

Recently, it has been reported that about 70 people have died or gone missing from a Rohingya refugee boat that capsized and sank near Indonesia.

According to AP News and others on the 24th (local time), the UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR) and the International Organization for Migration (IOM) issued a joint statement the previous day, stating that the initial number of refugees aboard the wooden boat that capsized off the western coast of Aceh on the 20th was estimated to be around 150.

The statement did not specify the number of deaths or missing persons, but the UNHCR listed the number as 75 on its official website.

The statement added, “If confirmed, this will be the largest loss of Rohingya refugee lives at sea this year.”

Since the discovery of the capsized boat, 75 people have been rescued. Some of the survivors, 44 men, 22 women, and 9 children, were transported to hospitals, but most were moved to temporary shelters in Aceh.

AP News reported testimonies from two survivors who claimed that the captain and about four crew members fled as the boat began to sink. However, it was added that this claim has not yet been verified.

The search was halted on the 22nd, just two days after the incident, due to a lack of additional information on the missing persons.

Meanwhile, on the 23rd, the bodies of two Rohingya women were washed ashore and recovered. Additionally, some bodies were found by fishermen after being washed up on the shore.

The capsized boat is known to have departed from Bangladesh on the 9th.

The Rohingya, a Muslim minority in predominantly Buddhist Myanmar, have long been oppressed, and currently, over 700,000 live in refugee camps near the Bangladesh border.

However, the conditions in the refugee camps are so impoverished that many refugees take to the sea in old wooden boats during the relatively calm months from October to April, heading towards Muslim-majority countries like Malaysia and Indonesia.

According to the UNHCR, about 4,500 Rohingya refugees took to the sea last year, and 569 of them either died or went missing.