Alwaght- A boat with 180 Rohingya Muslims on board started its journey from Bangladesh at the end of November was missing at sea, with all people on board presumed dead, the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) said over the weekend.
Nearly 1 million Rohingya from Myanmar are living in crowded facilities in neighboring Bangladesh, mostly those who fled their home country after its Buddhist military conducted a deadly crackdown against the minority Muslim Rohingyas in 2017.
The possible sinking of a will make 2022 one of the worst years for the community as refugees try to flee desperate conditions in camps in Bangladesh, the UN refugee agency told Reuters on Monday.
In Buddhist-majority Myanmar, most Rohingya are denied citizenship and are seen as illegal immigrants from South Asia.
The UNHCR said the vessel, which was not seaworthy, may have started to crack in early December before losing contact.
Nearly 200 Rohingya are feared dead or missing at sea this year already. "We hope against hope that the 180 missing are still alive somewhere out there," said UNHCR spokesperson Babar Baloch.
The UNHCR estimates nearly 900 Rohingya died or went missing in the Andaman Sea and the Bay of Bengal in 2013 and more than 700 in 2014.
"One of the worst years for dead and missing after 2013 and 2014," Baloch said of 2022, adding the number of people trying to flee had returned to levels seen before the COVID-19 pandemic.
"Trends show the numbers reaching back to 2020, when over 2,400 people attempted the risky sea crossings with more than 200 people dead or missing."
The number of Rohingya leaving Bangladesh in boats this year has jumped more than fivefold this year from a year earlier, rights groups estimate.
Baloch said it was not clear where exactly the boat with 180 aboard went missing, nor whether the lifting of COVID restrictions in Southeast Asia, a favoured destination for the Rohingya, was leading to the rush of people.
On Monday, the International Organization for Migration said in a statement that 57 Rohingya males disembarked in Indonesia's Aceh Besar district early on Dec. 25 with the support of local community members. It said the male-only boat is believed to have set off from Bangladesh and spent nearly a month drifting at sea.
Indonesian officials did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Two boats carrying a total of 230 Rohingya refugees, including women and children, landed on the shores of Indonesia's Aceh province in November, while this month, Sri Lanka's navy rescued 104 Rohingya adrift off the Indian Ocean island's northern coast.
