The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees has 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 extremely dehydrated.
The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) said it was unaware of the exact location of the ship and understood that some passengers had died. The ship had left southern Bangladesh about ten days ago and experienced an engine failure, he said.
“Immediate action is needed to save lives and prevent a new tragedy,” UNHCR said in a statement, offering support to governments in providing humanitarian aid to those rescued.
A senior Indian Coast Guard official confirmed to Reuters that the ship has been tracked to an area of the Andaman and Nicobar Islands.
Map of the Andoman and Nicobar Islands.
At least eight people had died on the ship, according to Chris Lewa, director of Project Arakan, a group that controls the Rohingya crisis.
Lewa said the Indian Navy ships that were nearby had provided water and food. “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 issued later.
According to UNHCR, the ship left Bangladesh’s coastal district, Cox’s Bazar, where about a million Rohingya live in appalling conditions in large refugee camps.
Meanwhile, in Malaysia, a court has temporarily suspended the deportation of 1,200 Myanmar nationals who were to return home with ships supplied by the Myanmar army. The migrants included members of vulnerable minorities and had been sent to a military base on the west coast of Malaysia to be loaded onto three ships for the journey home.
The United States and the UN have criticized the plan and called for the UN refugee agency to be granted access to detainees to assess whether they are seeking asylum.
The UN says it knows 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 on 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 stopped it,” said Rafiqul Islam, an additional police superintendent at Cox’s Bazar.
Amnesty International said in a statement that too many lives had already been lost in countries refusing to help Rohingya at sea.
“Another recurrence of these shameful incidents must be avoided here,” said Saad Hammadi, an Amnesty activist for South Asia.
“After years of limbo in Bangladesh and after the recent coup in Myanmar, the Rohingya feel they have no choice but to embark on these dangerous journeys.”