Dozens of refugees die, hundreds rescued from boat after weeks at sea

News Desk

Sixty Rohingya died on a boat crammed with hundreds of people stranded in the Bay of Bengal for more than two months. Both said that the captain of the fishing trawler, carrying over 500 men, women and children, was also killed in a fight with those on board.

Nearly a million Rohingya live in squalid camps near Bangladesh’s border with Myanmar after fleeing a military offensive in 2017. Thousands try every year to reach other countries on crowded rickety boats. Survivor Anwarul Islam said that after the ship was denied entry by both Malaysia and Thailand it headed back to Bangladesh where they were picked up by the coastguard late on Wednesday (15th April).
There were more than 500 people onboard, jam-packed. At least 60 of them died in the boat. They held on board their funeral prayers and dropped their bodies in the sea. They barely had food, freshwater, and medicines. The captain tried to rape one of their women and fighting broke out. Then that man was killed during the confrontation and his body thrown overboard.
It is learnt that they entered Malaysia (waters) three times but they didn’t let them in. Many of them died in the heat and sweat. There were too many onboard, mostly women and children.