At least seven people have died and 13 others rescued after a boat carrying Rohingya refugees from Myanmar sank near the Thailand-Malaysia border, the Malaysian maritime agency said on Sunday. Hundreds are feared to be missing following the incident.The maritime agency said rescuers recovered the body of a woman and rescued 10 migrants from the sea on Saturday. On Sunday, six more bodies and three additional survivors were found. The agency added that the search area has been expanded and operations will continue on Monday, reports CNN.
People had initially boarded a large vessel in Myanmar but were later told to transfer to three smaller boats, each carrying around 100 passengers, to evade detection as they approached Malaysia, Abu Shah said, as cited by Reuters. He said the status of the other two boats remains unknown, while search and rescue operations are still underway.Members of the mainly Muslim Rohingya minority continue to flee persecution in majority-Buddhist Myanmar, where they are denied citizenship and treated as outsiders from South Asia. Confronted with violence in Myanmar and worsening conditions in refugee camps in Bangladesh, many Rohingya undertake dangerous sea journeys in search of safety, often attempting to reach Malaysia.Between January and early November this year, more than 5,100 Rohingya have attempted to flee Myanmar and Bangladesh by sea, with nearly 600 reported dead or missing, according to data from the UN Refugee Agency, as reported by Reuters.In one of the deadliest incidents, more than 20 people drowned in multiple boat capsizings off the Malaysian coast in December 2021.Myanmar, meanwhile, remains gripped by a civil war between the military and multiple armed opposition groups following the 2021 coup that ousted the elected government of Aung San Suu Kyi.
