At least 12 Rohingya refugees drowned after their boat capsized on the way to Bangladesh on Sunday, police said. Reports state that most of the dead included children. These are the latest victims of the violence in Myanmar which had forced thousands of people from the community to flee the country.
Bangladesh authorities said that the boat sank near Shah Porir Dwip, on the southern tip of Bangladesh, late on Sunday. It is still not clear how many people were on the boat.
Rohingyas are stateless Indo-Aryan people from Rakhine state in Myanmar and are categorised as one of the most persecuted minorities in the world. Around 40,000 Rohingyas have settled in India. Ever since the latest flare-up of violence against the community in Myanmar this year, over 4 lakh Rohingyas have fled the state, pouring into nearby countries like Bangladesh seeking refuge.
Bangladesh is facing a refugee crisis, where the figure of Rohingya refugees has more than doubled than what was calculated weeks earlier when their sudden exodus from Rakhine began late August.
Refugees mainly flee to Bangladesh through boats which are operated by fishermen who often cram in dozens of desperate Rohingyas.
At least 12 bodies - 10 children, one woman and a man - had been recovered from the site of the incident, Bangladeshi police officer Mohammed Mainuddin told Reuters. Authorities had earlier said that nearly eight people had been rescued from the boat.
This is the latest such incident associated with Rohingya refugees. On September 28, a boat carrying about 80 refugees overturned with only 17 survivors.
Nearly 46 bodies were recovered after a boat sank in the narrow stretch of water that separates Myanmar and Bangladesh in early September too.
The latest string of violence in Myanmar's northwestern Rakhine state began on August 25 when Rohingya insurgents reportedly attacked various police posts and an army base. A military counter-offensive and clashes led to a loss of at least 400 lives and initiated an exodus of the villagers in the region to Bangladesh.
The United Nations has said that it would appeal for a sum of $430 million in aid from the international community to assist the Rohingya refugees in Bangladesh, calling it "the world's fastest developing refugee emergency."
