Nearly 500 Feared Dead After Two Boats Carrying Rohingya Refugees Sink Off Myanmar Coast
Yangon/New York: Nearly 500 people are feared dead after two boats carrying mostly Rohingya refugees sank off the coast of Myanmar, according to a joint statement issued by the International Organization for Migration (IOM) and the UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR).The statement said both boats departed from Myanmar’s Rakhine State in late June as refugees attempted…
Yangon/New York: Nearly 500 people are feared dead after two boats carrying mostly Rohingya refugees sank off the coast of Myanmar, according to a joint statement issued by the International Organization for Migration (IOM) and the UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR).
The statement said both boats departed from Myanmar’s Rakhine State in late June as refugees attempted to flee the region.
According to the report, some passengers had begun their journey from the Rohingya refugee camps in Cox’s Bazar, Bangladesh. One boat was carrying 250 people, while the second had 280 passengers on board.
The UN agencies warned that hundreds are feared to have lost their lives in what could become one of the deadliest maritime tragedies involving Rohingya refugees in recent years. Search efforts and assessments of the incident are continuing.
