Refugees missing after boat capsizes
DHAKA, Bangladesh — More than two dozen Rohingya refugees were missing and feared drowned after a boat carrying them capsized in the Bay of Bengal, the United Nations and Bangladeshi police said Sunday.
The refugees were apparently trying to flee a remote Bangladeshi island. Several thousand Rohingya have been relocated to the island after previously residing in crowded camps near the border with Burma.
Burma is often called Myanmar, a name that military authorities adopted in 1989. Some nations, such as the United States and Britain, have refused to adopt the name change.
The relocation has been criticized by the U.N. and human rights groups, who say the island isn’t fit for habitation. The island used to be regularly submerged by monsoon rains, but the government now says it’s been outfitted with protective sea walls, hospitals, schools and mosques.
A police official in Noakhali district, where the island is located, said about 40 refugees, including children, were in a fishing boat, but it sank in bad weather.
Speaking on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the issue, the official said the refugees were “apparently fleeing the island.”
The official said at least 14 refugees were rescued by fishermen and brought back to the island.
More than 700,000 Rohingya have fled to refugee camps in Bangladesh since August 2017, when the military in Buddhist-majority Burma began a harsh crackdown on the Muslim ethnic group following an attack by insurgents.