Dozens dead as nearly 400 emaciated Rohingya refugees saved from boat adrift for two months off Bangladesh

At least 32 Rohingya refugees have died as nearly 400 emaciated survivors were rescued by Bangladesh’s coastguard from a boat that has been drifting for weeks after failing to reach Malaysia.

They were attempting to land on the coast in the Teknaf area in Cox’s Bazar in Bangladesh late on Wednesday night, said Lieutenant Commander M Sohel Rana, head of the local coastguard.

Footage from the scene showed a starving crowd of mostly women and children being helped to shore. Many appeared stick-thin and unable to stand.

One refugee said the group had been turned back from Malaysia twice and a fight had broken out between passengers and crew at one point.

“The refugees came from Cox’s Bazar that they have been at sea for about two months,” Athena Rayburn, senior advocacy officer for Save the Children in Cox’s Bazar, told The Independent.

She said the time they left would “put their departure at a similar time to a boat that left in February where there were 15 Rohingya women and children that drowned when it capsized in the Bay of Bengal.”

The refugees will now be taken to quarantine for up to 14-days as a precaution against the coronavirus, Ms Rayburn added. They will then be returned to their shelters in the camp.

When asked if more boats carrying the Muslim-minority Rohingya could be adrift at sea, Ms Rayburn said: “It’s possible. Some human rights agencies have suggested that there are other boats.

“Anecdotally we have seen an uptick in Rohingya trying to get to Malaysia, Indonesia and Thailand by boat. Very often these attempts will happen in the dry season when the seas are slightly calmer and slightly less dangerous.

“So it’s possible but it’s very difficult issue to keep track of. The Bangladesh authorities have apprehended about 1,000 Rohingya over the last few months at coastal towns about to take the journey on boats. So it’s something that’s happening consistently, but the scale of it is very difficult to determine.”

The UNHCR said in a statement. “We understand these men, women and children were at sea for nearly two months in harrowing conditions and that many of them are extremely malnourished and dehydrated.”

The agency said “UNHCR is offering to assist the government to move these people to quarantine facilities” and it also offered medical attention.

Rohingya refugees from Myanmar have been boarding boats organised by smugglers for years in the hopes of finding refugee in southeast Asia. They typically attempt to make the crossing in the dry season between November and March, when the waters are calmer.

Buddhist-majority Myanmar does not recognise the Muslim-minority as citizens, and they face restrictions on freedom of movement, access to healthcare and education. Myanmar denies persecuting the Rohingya and argues they are not an indigenous ethnic group but immigrants from south Asia.

More than a million fled to refugee camps in southern Bangladesh after they were driven from their homes in Myanmar after a military crackdown in 2017, which the army said was a response to attacks by Rohingya insurgents.

The dangerous crossings will likely continue as long as the issues the Rohingya face in Bangladesh and Myanmar remain, Ms Rayburn, from Save the Children, cautioned.

“Very often when we see these upticks in Rohingya and Bangladeshis trying to take these routes to either Malaysia, Thailand or Indonesia, the response is to focus on shoring up borders and coast guards to prevent these attempts from happening, but they will continue to happen for as long as the root causes of why people feel compelled to leave are still there.

“When we’ve spoken to Rohingya, it comes up many times that the reason they feel compelled to take this journey, which is incredibly dangerous, is because they don’t see any future in the camps.

“The conditions are unsafe and unsanitary, and their children have limited access to school. As long as those conditions are not addressed, and as long as they can’t go home because Myanmar hasn’t resolved the root causes in Rakhine state, it would be very difficult to prevent people from taking this kind of action.”

She added: “A couple of Rohingya I spoke to in February who had been on a boat that capsized said they planned to attempt to go again as soon as they can, because they couldn’t see any options for themselves in Cox’s Bazar.

“It will keep happening as long as we don’t find a solution for the Rohingya.”