India locates Rohingya refugee boat adrift at sea, provided them with food, water: UNHCR

The UN refugee agency, UNHCR, on February 25 informed that the Indian coast guard found a boat carrying Rohingya refugees adrift in the Andaman Sea and provided them with food, water and medical care. The Indian coast guard had answered a UN agency's plea to look for the boat carrying Rohingya refugees believed to be adrift in the Andaman Sea without food and water for several days. According to the Associated Press, about 90 refugees, including some children, started the journey to seek better lives. The boat was believed to have left Bangladesh two weeks ago and then broken down at sea, leaving the refugees suffering from acute dehydration. 

The UNHCR had said that it does not know the boat’s exact current location. Earlier this week, the UN agency had alerted nearby nations to look for the boat and said that it was prepared to offer humanitarian assistance if it was found. Chris Lewa, who is the director of the Arakan Project that monitors the Rohingya crisis, said they had heard at least eight people had already died on the boat.

FILE - IN this Feb. 15, 2021, file photo, Rohingya refugees headed to the Bhasan Char island prepare to board navy vessels from the south eastern port city of Chattogram, Bangladesh. The United Nations said Wednesday, Feb. 24, 2021, that a group of Rohingya refugees is adrift in a boat in the Andaman Sea without food or water, and that their families are worried that many may have already died. (AP Photo, File)

READ: UN: Boat With Rohingya Refugees Adrift Without Food, Water

READ: UN Agency Seeks Help To Find Rohingya Boat Adrift At Sea

Refugee boat is ‘traceless’ 

According to AP, Lewa said that Arakan Project has been unable to contact the refugees for several days. She informed that the organisation had spoken to the refugees, but then later they were traceless. The refugees had no water, no food and they were drinking seawater and dying, Lewa said. 

Following assistance from the Indian coast guards, the UNHCR appreciated the deployment of the nation’s search and rescue team. Catherine Stbberfield, who is the spokesperson for the UNHCR Regional Bureau for Asia and the Pacific, said that given that the refugees are still adrift at sea, immediate disembarkment is absolutely critical to meeting their most basic needs and ensuring that their safety is no longer threatened. Bangladesh authorities, on the other hand, said that they had no information about any boat that recently carried Rohingya out of Bangladesh’s waters. 

It is worth noting that over one million Rohingya refugees from Myanmar are living in crowded camps in Bangladesh, including more than 700,000 who fled after Myanmar’s military conducted a harsh counterinsurgency operation in 2017 involving mass rape, murders and the torching of the villages. Muslin-dominated Malaysia has been a common destination of boats arranged by traffickers who promise the refugees a better life abroad. Bangladesh has said that ultimately it is up to Myanmar to take the refugees back and has called on the international community to put pressure on Myanmar’s government to ensure their safe return.

(Rep image: @SknYusuf/Twitter)

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