Rohingya refugees perish after boats capsize

THE bodies of 26 women and children were recovered after boats carrying ethnic Rohingya fleeing violence in Burma capsized in Bangladesh yesterday, officials said.

Lt-col S.M. Ariful Islam, Bangladesh border guard commander, said at least three boats carrying an unknown number of Rohingya Muslims capsized in the Naf River at Teknaf in the Cox’s Bazar district on Wednesday.

He said the bodies of 15 children and 11 women were recovered, and it was unclear whether anyone was still missing. Mohammad Ali Hossain, the top official in Cox’s Bazar, said the bodies would be buried because no one had claimed them.

Last week, a group of ethnic minority Rohingya insurgents attacked at least two dozen police posts in Burma’s Rakhine state, prompting fighting with security forces that left more than 100 people dead and forced at least 18,000 Rohingya to flee into neighbouring Bangladesh.

Hundreds of people have been stranded in a no-man’s-land at the border, the International Organization for Migration said.

Most of Burma’s estimated one million Rohingya Muslims live in northern Rakhine state, where they face persecution in the Buddhist-majority country, which refuses to recognise them as a native ethnic minority, leaving them without citizenship and basic rights.