The United Nations refugee agency called for the immediate rescue of a group of Rohingya refugees adrift on their boat in the Andaman Sea, without food or water, many of them sick and suffering from extreme dehydration.
The UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) said he did not know the exact location of the ship and that some passengers died. The boat left southern Bangladesh about 10 days ago and suffered an engine failure, he said.
“Immediate action is needed to save lives and prevent further tragedies,” said UNHCR in a statement, offering support to governments by providing humanitarian aid to those rescued.
A senior Indian coast guard official confirmed to Reuters that the boat was tracked to an area close to the Andaman and Nicobar Islands.
Map of the Andoman and Nicobar Islands.
At least eight people died on the boat, according to Chris Lewa, director of Project Arakan, a group that monitors the Rohingya crisis.
Lewa said Indian navy ships nearby provided food and water. “But we still don’t know what they will do next,” he added.
A spokesman for the Indian Navy did not provide details of the situation, but said a statement would be released later.
According to UNHCR, the boat left Bangladesh’s coastal district of Cox’s Bazar, where about a million Rohingya live in dire conditions in extensive refugee camps.
Meanwhile, in Malaysia, a court has temporarily suspended the deportation of 1,200 Myanmar citizens who were to return on boats provided by the Myanmar military. The migrants included members of vulnerable minorities and were sent to a military base on the west coast of Malaysia to be loaded onto three boats for the journey home.
The United States and the UN have criticized the plan and called for the UN refugee agency to have access to detainees to assess whether any of them are asylum seekers.
The UN claims to know that at least six are registered with them and need international protection.
Hundreds of thousands of Rohingya fled to Bangladesh in 2017 after a deadly crackdown by security forces in Myanmar.
Bangladeshi authorities said on Monday that they were unaware of any boats leaving the fields. “If we had this information, we would have prevented it,” said Rafiqul Islam, an additional police superintendent at Cox’s Bazar.
Amnesty International said in a statement that many lives have already been lost in countries that have refused to help the Rohingya people at sea.
“Another repetition of these shameful incidents should be avoided here,” said Amnesty South Asia activist Saad Hammadi.
“After years of limbo in Bangladesh and after the recent coup in Myanmar, the Rohingya people feel they have no option but to undertake these dangerous journeys.”