17 Rohingyas drown fleeing Myanmar

DHAKA: Bangladesh coastguards yesterday found the bodies of 17 Rohingyas, many of them children, who drowned when their boats capsized as they fled violence in Myanmar that has forced at least 18,500 to seek refuge across the border.

Officials in Bangladesh say growing numbers of Rohingyas are trying to cross the Naf river that divides the two countries in rickety boats ill-equipped for the rough waters as they become increasingly desperate to escape.

The International Organisation for Migration said on Wednesday that at least 18,500 Rohingyas had crossed into Bangladesh since fighting erupted in Myanmar’s neighbouring Rakhine state six days earlier.

One coast guard official who asked not to be named said the migrants were travelling on “rickety inland fishing boats” unsuitable for the choppy seas around Bangladesh.

On Wednesday, the bodies of two Rohingya women and two children washed up in Bangladesh after their boat capsized.

Officials said two more boats capsized yesterday, killing at least 17 people, many of them children.

Photographs from the scene showed the bodies of several small children lined up on the ground, covered in sheets.

One survivor said the small, overcrowded boat he was travelling on had been tipped over by huge waves near where the Naf river opens out into the sea.

“Nobody knew how to navigate the sea waters. When huge waves tilted the boat, we panicked,” said Shah Karim.

The Naf river that divides the two countries is narrow in places, but the Rohingyas are increasingly crossing where the river is wider, or even venturing out to sea, after Bangladeshi authorities intensified border patrols.

Bangladesh is already home to an estimated 400,000 Rohingyas, a mainly Muslim stateless minority.

Most live in squalid and increasingly overcrowded camps in the coastal area of Cox’s Bazar, and Dhaka has made clear it does not want more to come in.

On Wednesday, Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina asked the US to put pressure on Myanmar to stem the flow.

“We have given shelter to a huge number of Rohingya refugees in Bangladesh on humanitarian grounds and it’s a big problem for us,” state-run BSS news agency quoted her as saying.

An estimated 6,000 more Rohingyas are massed on the border, having fled villages in Myanmar that they say were set on fire by policemen, soldiers and mobs. – AFP