At least 11 Rohingya refugees have died and hundreds more are feared missing after a boat carrying people fleeing Myanmar capsized near the Thai-Malaysian maritime border. The vessel went down off Thailand’s Ko Tarutao island, just north of Malaysia’s Langkawi Island.
Malaysian authorities recovered seven bodies on Sunday, including five women and a young girl.
Thirteen survivors have been rescued so far, according to Romli Mustafa, head of the Malaysian Maritime Enforcement Agency (MMEA). Thai authorities said they recovered four more bodies on Monday, including those of two children.
Officials estimate the boat was carrying around 70 people and was part of a larger group of nearly 300 Rohingya who left Myanmar’s Rakhine state three days earlier on multiple vessels.
Two other boats from the group remain unaccounted for, and search operations are ongoing across a vast 583-square-kilometre (225-square-mile) zone near Langkawi.
Images released by the MMEA showed one survivor covered with a sheet and another lying on a stretcher as rescue crews continued to scour the waters.
Director of the Kedah and Perlis Maritime Region, First Admiral Romli Mustafa, said the search operation resumed at 7.30 a.m. after being suspended the previous evening due to darkness and safety concerns.
He said initial accounts from rescued survivors suggest around 70 people were on the ill-fated boat at the time of the incident. “As the coordinating agency, the Malaysian Maritime Enforcement Agency (MMEA) has expanded the search sectors based on analyses of currents, wind patterns and probable drift locations,” he said, adding that the operation now covers both surface searches and aerial surveillance.
To intensify efforts, multiple security agencies have deployed assets, including five from MMEA, KM SIANGIN as the On-Scene Commander, BENTENG 7, PETIR 81, PERKASA 1226 and the Bombardier CL 415 aircraft.
Meanwhile, Kedah police chief Adzli Abu Shah told a press briefing that patrols have been stepped up around Teluk Ewa in Kedah state and nearby coastal areas, urging residents to alert authorities if they come across any survivors hiding or stranded in the area.
He said police are also working with the MMEA to determine the location where the vessel sank and are working to identify those responsible for smuggling the migrants into Malaysia.
Malaysia hosts millions of migrants and refugees from across Asia, many of whom are undocumented and work in sectors such as construction and agriculture.
Rohingya refugees frequently attempt dangerous sea crossings to Malaysia and Thailand, facilitated by human trafficking networks. These journeys are often deadly, with frequent reports of capsized boats and disappearances.
The mainly Muslim Rohingya minority continue to flee predominantly Buddhist Myanmar, where they are denied citizenship, labelled as outsiders of South Asian origin, and subjected to decades of persecution. Nearly one million Rohingya refugees currently live in overcrowded camps in southern Bangladesh.
Conditions in Myanmar have deteriorated further since the military coup of 2021, which plunged the country into a civil war between the junta and multiple armed resistance groups.
Human rights groups say the worsening crisis in Rakhine is driving a new wave of Rohingya migration.
The Rohingya Human Rights Initiative (R4R) posted on X that “#Rohingya people continue to flee Rakhine State, Myanmar, amid ongoing torture, abductions, killings, forced labour, and forced recruitment.”
The organisation alleged that the Arakan Army has been acting as an intermediary, “taking huge ransoms to facilitate their travel to other countries and often handing victims to traffickers,” using the hashtags #SaveRohingya and #Myanmar.
Rescue operations in the Andaman Sea are still underway, with fears that the death toll may rise as search teams struggle to locate them.
Earlier in May, at least 427 Rohingya are feared drowned in two separate shipwrecks off the Myanmar coast, according to the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR).
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