DHAKA: Bangladeshi authorities are sounding the alarm over a growing number of Rohingya refugees going missing at sea as they make the dangerous voyage through the Bay of Bengal to reach Southeast Asia.
Bangladesh is home to more than 1.2 million Rohingya Muslims, who have fled death and persecution in neighboring Myanmar for decades, particularly during the military crackdown in 2017.
Most of them live in the Cox’s Bazar district, a coastal region in eastern Bangladesh that became the world’s largest refugee settlement with the arrival of the Rohingya.
The humanitarian situation in Cox’s Bazar refugee camp has been deteriorating for years, with Bangladeshi authorities warning last month that the camp had reached crisis levels amid a sharp decline in global aid to the oppressed stateless minority. I warned you that it was coming.
In 2023, the United Nations’ annual fundraising plan for international organizations will raise $876 million of the $876 million needed to provide vital support to people displaced in Bangladesh, according to data from the United Nations refugee agency UNHCR. Only 50% were present.
This was the highest number of Rohingya refugees who died or went missing while attempting to migrate to another country on their own in nine years.
“This trend of seafaring will only increase in the future,” Mizanur Rahman, Bangladesh’s refugee relief and repatriation commissioner, told Arab News on Thursday.
“The camp is overcrowded. Despite all efforts, we are unable to provide a sustainable living environment.”
Despite awareness campaigns about the dangers of sea travel and anti-trafficking efforts, Rohingya in Bangladesh are losing hope of returning to their homeland in Myanmar.
“They don’t see any possibility of repatriation,” Mizanur said. “In this situation, people are desperate and trying to go anywhere they can.”
According to UNHCR data, 569 Rohingya refugees died or went missing in 2023, with around 4,500 of them making dangerous boat journeys from Bangladesh and, to a lesser extent, Myanmar. The number of deaths has doubled compared to 2022. The total number in 2014 was 730.
Approximately 66% of those attempting these trips are children and women, many aiming to reunite with their husbands and fathers who left earlier and ended up in countries such as Malaysia, which is currently home to more than 100,000 Rohingya refugees. Ta.
“They have some ties to communities that have previously visited Malaysia and other countries in the region. It’s their only way out because it’s not in their sights,” rights and immigration expert Asif Mounier told Arab News. .
“They don’t really think about the dangers of this journey. It’s a survival option for them in a way.”
He said the surge in sea travel was due to psychological pressure, as the UN-backed repatriation and resettlement process for the Rohingya had failed in recent years despite multiple attempts by Bangladeshi authorities. I thought this was due to increased uncertainty.
At the same time, there are only a few examples of transfers to third countries taking place in exceptional cases.
Meunier does not expect more repatriations to occur in the next few years.
“I don’t think they are unaware of the risks involved in this sea voyage,” he says. “But they have seen so much danger in their lives that they become hopeless and their fear of death diminishes.”