At least 348 people from the Muslim minority ‘Rohingya’ died or disappeared trying to cross the dangerous routes of the Andaman Sea and the Bay of Bengal in 2022, announced today the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR).
Malaysia At a press conference in Geneva, the UNHCR spokeswoman, Shabia Mantoo, said that most of the ‘Rohingya’ refugees who sought the sea route to try to reach other countries landed on the coasts of Myanmar (formerly Burma), , from Indonesia and Bangladesh, about 45% of whom were women and children.
UNHCR data pointed out that around 3,500 ‘Rohingya’ refugees used these routes last year, five times more than in 2021, when that number was around 700.
In this regard, Shabia Mantoo called for a regional response to the situation and warned that the death toll on the high seas could increase in the coming months.
The situation worsened in the last months of 2022, when four ships with more than 450 members of the ‘Rohingya’ ethnic group on board arrived off the coast of Aceh (Indonesia), another with more than 100 arrived in Sri Lanka and another still with 180 passengers sank in early December.
Currently, several ships remain adrift off the coasts of Myanmar and Bangladesh, despite UNHCR appeals to various countries in the region.
At the same press conference, the UN agency spokeswoman urged Southeast Asian countries to rescue people stranded on the high seas as quickly as possible and called for “redoubled efforts” to stop smuggling and human trafficking once they land. .
According to UNHCR, some 860,000 ‘Rohingya’ are currently living in overcrowded refugee camps in Bangladesh. Most of them, around 740,000, have found refuge in the Cox’s Bazar area since mid-August 2017, when a military operation by the Burmese army against the Salvation Army rebel movement was launched in Rakhine State (in Myanmar). of the Rohingya state due to attacks by the rebellion on military and police posts.
Other countries in the region host around 150,000 Rohingya refugees.
The UN estimates that there are around 600,000 ‘Rohingya’ who still reside in Rakhine State.
The Myanmar army’s campaign of repression against this minority has been condemned by the international community and has been described by the UN as ethnic cleansing and a possible genocide, including the murder of thousands of people, the rape of women and children and the destruction of several villages. , among other human rights violations.
Myanmar, with a Buddhist majority, does not recognize this minority and imposes multiple restrictions on the ‘Rohingyas’, including freedom of movement.
