Hundreds of people are feared dead after a migrant boat from Myanmar capsized near Malaysia.
At least seven bodies have been found and 13 people rescued after 300 people failed to arrive in Malaysia after leaving Myanmar’s Rakhine state.
Officials believe the passengers boarded a large ship and were then placed into three smaller boats, each carrying around 100 passengers, to evade detection as they approached the Malaysian coast.
One of the boats is believed to have sunk in Thai waters on Thursday, while the two others are yet to be found.
Search teams were deployed after reports of survivors drifting at sea and rescuers are combing an area of 170 square nautical miles near Langkawi island, in the Malacca Strait, after one of the boats sank on Thursday.
Rishi Sunak can't solve Channel migrant crisis, says majority of voters
The Malaysian Maritime Enforcement Agency (MMEA) said that they recovered the body of a woman from the sea on Saturday. The remaining six bodies were discovered on Sunday before the operation was suspended. It was scheduled to resume on Monday.
The migrants had departed from the town of Buthidaung, in Myanmar’s Rakhine state where ethnic violence has targeted the Rohingya community.
The survivors included three Myanmar nationals, two Rohingya refugees, and a Bangladeshi man. “There is a possibility that more victims will be found,” said Romli Mustafa, first admiral of the MMEA.
Rakhine state has suffered years of conflict, hunger and ethnic violence mostly targeting the Rohingya Muslim minority community.
About 1.3 million Rohingya live as refugees in densely-packed camps in neighboring Bangladesh after they were driven out of Rakhine following a brutal 2017 military crackdown.
The country has been mired in conflict after the Myanmar military overthrew the democratically elected government of Aung San Suu Kyi in 2021.
Read more similar news:
Comments:
comments powered by Disqus
