The UN refugee company has warned of an ‘unmarked graveyard for hundreds of determined Rohingya refugees’ in South Asia
Revealed On 17 Apr 2026
The United Nations refugee company has revealed that almost 900 Rohingya refugees have been reported lifeless or lacking within the Bay of Bengal and the Andaman Sea in 2025.
This was the deadliest yr on report for maritime actions in South and South East Asia, and hundreds of individuals proceed to make the damaging journeys in 2026, the UN mentioned on Friday.
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Talking to reporters in Geneva, the UNHCR’s spokesperson, Babar Baloch, described the realm as an “unmarked graveyard for hundreds of determined Rohingya refugees”, noting that some 5,000 are thought to have drowned at sea over the past decade.
Lots of of hundreds of Rohingya refugees started fleeing Myanmar in 2017 amid an ethnic cleaning marketing campaign. They largely settled in refugee camps in Bangladesh, which continues to offer refuge to these fleeing right now.
Nevertheless, humanitarian assist within the nation has been diminished attributable to funding shortfalls, and there may be restricted entry to training and alternatives within the camps, prompting folks to aim the damaging sea crossings.
Greater than 2,800 Rohingya have achieved so this yr, the bulk leaving from Cox’s Bazar in Bangladesh or Rakhine State in Myanmar within the hope of reaching Malaysia or Indonesia.
Whereas Baloch says that almost all want to return to Myanmar as soon as circumstances enable, “ongoing battle, persecution, and the absence of citizenship prospects depart them with actually little hope” of doing so.
In recent times, over half of these making the ocean journeys have been girls and youngsters, who’re susceptible to trafficking and exploitation.
Lethal journeys
Earlier this month, an overcrowded trawler carrying about 250 Rohingya refugees and Bangladeshi nationals sank within the Andaman Sea. It was on its approach to Malaysia from the southern Bangladeshi port of Teknaf when it skilled tough seas and heavy winds on April 8. Whereas the Bangladeshi coastguard mentioned it had rescued 9 folks, a whole bunch extra are lacking.
The UNHCR hopes that highlighting the report demise toll will make folks conscious of “what the Rohingyas are going by way of inside Myanmar and within the refugee camps and within the wider area”, and immediate options to keep away from one other report toll in 2026.
