(Rangoon) The bodies of 14 people were found washed up on a beach in Burma, a local police official told AFP on Monday, a rescuer stressing that some were members of the Rohingya minority who had wanted to leave the country. by boat.
Posted at 1:16 p.m.
According to the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), at least 17 people may have died after the sinking of their boat.
“14 bodies were found and 35 people, including the owners of the boat, were rescued,” said Lt. Col. Tun Shwe, the police spokesman for Pathein district, about 200 km west. from Yangon (south).
A Myanmar Rescue Organization rescuer, who requested anonymity, said eight bodies were discovered on Sunday, all of them Rohingya who tried to cross into Malaysia.
According to an activist from this Muslim minority contacted by AFP, the 14 victims are 12 women and two boys.
The boat was carrying people from the towns of Buthidaung, Maungdaw and Sittwe in Rakhine state, where most of the Rohingya minority live, he added, declining to be identified.
According to the survivors, 61 people were on board the ship, the member of the rescue group told AFP, with 12 people still missing.
UNHCR said the boat left Sittwe (west) on May 19 and faced rough waters, before capsizing two days later.
Those who were rescued are being held at Pathein police station, police spokesman Tun Shwe said.
He did not say whether some of them would be charged, as is sometimes the case for Rohingyas caught fleeing Burma.
Hundreds of thousands of Rohingyas, members of a community that immigrated to Burma several generations ago, have fled the country, whose population is predominantly Buddhist, since 2017 after a brutal crackdown by the army that carried out massacres and rape, according to refugee testimonies.
perilous journeys
“This latest tragedy once again shows the sense of desperation felt by the Rohingyas in Burma and the region,” said Indrika Ratwatte, UNHCR’s Asia-Pacific regional officer.
The Rohingya who are still in Burmese territory are widely considered foreigners who arrived from Bangladesh, being denied citizenship, rights and access to services.
Burma’s junta leader Min Aung Hlaing, who led the armed forces during the 2017 crackdown, called the term Rohingya “imaginary”.
Last March, the United States officially declared the violence committed by the Burmese army against the Rohingyas to constitute genocide, saying that there was clear evidence of an attempt to “destruct” this Muslim minority. .
Every year, hundreds of Rohingya undertake perilous months-long journeys by sea to other Southeast Asian states.
Malaysia, a relatively wealthy country, is usually their preferred destination, but some also end up going to Indonesia.
Many of them arrive by boat after enduring months of grueling sea travel.
Those who are then arrested are often sent to detention centers, which rights groups say are typically overcrowded and filthy.
Last month, hundreds of Rohingya migrants escaped from a detention center in Malaysia after a riot.