Sixty Rohingyas died on a boat carrying hundreds of hungry refugees, driven back to the Bay of Bengal where they drifted for two months. The boat was trying to get members of this pariah community into Thailand and Malaysia, but it was rejected. She was finally rescued on Wednesday evening by the Bangladesh Coast Guard.
“There were over 500 people on board, huddled together. At least 60 of us died on the boat, "Anwarul Islam, a survivor, told AFP. "We had almost no food, clean water and medicine," he added.
250 women and children on board
In total, nearly 400 emaciated passengers were on board, including 250 women and children. "They were hungry," said Shah Zia Rahman, lieutenant of the coast guard. Based on the story of other survivors, the Bangladeshi authorities put forward the figure of 32 dead during this journey. Only a small part of the passengers held a Bangladesh refugee card, the majority of those on board had embarked from the Rakhine State of Burma, said Shah Zia Rahman.
The survivors were taken care of by the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees. Amnesty International has denounced "the cruel indifference of other governments" to the plight of the Rohingya. In total, nearly a million of them live in dire poverty in huge refugee camps in southern Bangladesh, after fleeing violence in neighboring Burma, a country with a Buddhist majority and where this Muslim minority has been persecuted for decades.
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- Rescue
- Rohingya
- Monde
- Burma
- Bangladesh