60 Rohingyas presumed dead in shipwreck

GENEVA: THE BOAT WAS CARRYING ABOUT 80 PEOPLE, INCLUDING 50 CHILDREN AND ITS CAPTAIN WHO IS A SUSPECTED TRAFFICKER, IS MISSING

More than 60 people are either confirmed dead or missing and presumed dead following the shipwreck of a boat carrying Rohingya Muslims fleeing Myanmar, the UN migration agency said on Friday.

Spokesman Joel Millman of the International Organization for Migration told reporters in Geneva that 23 deaths have been confirmed, after eight bodies were found overnight following an initial count of 15.

“The total fatality toll be in the range of 60,” he added.

Survivors from the accident told IOM staff that the boat was carrying about 80 people, including 50 children, who were believed to be fleeing violence from Myanmar’s northern Rakhine state. “Survivors described being at sea all night, having no food,” Millman said.

The drowning tragedy is the latest in a series of deadly accidents as desperate refugees surge into Bangladesh, where they are penned into ramshackle tent cities amid dire shortages of nearly all forms of aid.

Witnesses and survivors previously said that the overturned vessel was just metres from the coast in rough waters, after it was lashed by torrential rain and high winds.

“The Bay of Bengal has been a notorious killing zone for many years,” Millman added, highlighting the dangers facing Rohingya migrants seeking safety via the sea. He added that the “captain” of the vessel, who is a suspected trafficker, is missing and presumed dead, but not included in IOM’s death toll, which counts only the migrants.

The refugees drowned while, in New York, US Ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley called on countries to suspend providing weapons to Myanmar over violence against Rohingya Muslims.

It was the first time the United States had called for punishment of Myanmar’s military leaders behind the repression, but she stopped short of threatening to reimpose US sanctions which were suspended under the Obama administration.

UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres termed exodus of Rohingyas as the ‘world’s fastest-developing refugee emergency’ and asked Myanmar to end the military operations and allow access for aid. AGENCIES