Shafaqna English– UN’s refugee agency, UNHCR, expressed concern on Friday (23 May 2025) that 427 Rohingya may have perished at sea following two boat tragedies off the coast of Myanmar earlier this month while seeking safe refuge.
Reports suggested that 514 Rohingya were traveling on two boats. Details are still being confirmed, UNHCR said in a statement.
The first boat carried 267 people. Among them, more than half reportedly left from refugee camps in south-eastern Cox’s Bazar district of Bangladesh, while the remainder departed from Rakhine State in Myanmar. The boat sank on May 9, with 66 survivors.
Bangladesh is hosting more than 1.3 million persecuted Rohingya Muslims since they fled a Myanmar military crackdown in August 2017.
The second boat carried 247 Rohingya, also refugees from Cox’s Bazar camps and those fleeing Rakhine State, and capsized on May 10, with 21 survivors.
Nearly 1 in 5 people attempting perilous sea movements in the region have been reported dead or missing in 2025, making the waters of the Andaman Sea and Bay of Bengal among the deadliest in the world.
Source: Anadolu Ajansı