Malaysia steps up search for missing Rohingya boats, at least 11 dead

Malaysian maritime patrols scoured coastal waters in the Andaman Sea on Monday in search of dozens of missing members of Myanmar's persecuted Rohingya minority who police believe were on a boat that capsized and sank, killing at least 11 people.

Hundreds of Rohingya boarded a vessel towards Malaysia two weeks ago, before being split into groups and sent to two boats on Thursday, said Khairul Azhar Nuruddin, police chief on Malaysia's northern Langkawi island, from where search operations are continuing across 255.7 square nautical miles (877 sq km).

Long persecuted in Buddhist-majority Myanmar, the mainly Muslim Rohingya face escalating violence in their war-torn homeland and worsening conditions in crowded refugee camps in neighbouring Bangladesh where 1.3 million of them live.

There were around 70 people in the vessel that sank near Langkawi, while the fate of the other boat carrying 230 passengers remained unclear, according to Malaysian authorities.

They have found 13 survivors and seven bodies.

In neighbouring Thailand, authorities have recovered four bodies, including two Rohingya girls, a maritime security official said.

"The Thai Navy and Marine Police have carried out additional inspections," Sakra Kapilakarn, the governor of Thailand's southern Satun province, said.

FAMILY DESPERATE FOR INFORMATION

More than 5,100 Rohingya boarded boats to leave Myanmar and Bangladesh between January and early November this year, with nearly 600 people reported dead or missing, according to data from the UN Refugee Agency.

In the last week of October, multiple boats carrying Rohingya left Cox's Bazar in Bangladesh, from where it takes between a week and 10 days to reach Malaysian waters, said Chris Lewa, director of the non-profit Arakan Project, which closely tracks the voyages.

The boats might also have stopped in waters off Myanmar to pick up Rohingya coming from inland areas of Rakhine state, where a raging civil war has made displacement worse, she said.

Among those who left Cox's Bazar was 29-year-old Mohammed Ibrahim, who took a boat to Malaysia on October 26, according to his elder brother, Mohammed Younus. "He left for Malaysia without telling anyone," he said from the refugee camps, where he is frantically trying to find out his brother's whereabouts. "If I had known, I would never have let him go. He has a wife, three children — a three-year-old son and 10-month-old twin girls. Who will take care of them?"

Muslim-majority Malaysia has long been a favoured destination for Rohingya fleeing persecution although the country does not recognise refugee status. In recent years, it has turned away boats and detained Rohingya, as part of a crackdown on undocumented migrants.

Malaysian police said on Monday those rescued had been detained pending an investigation into potential immigration offences.

SEARCH TO GO ON FOR A WEEK

The regional head of Malaysia's maritime agency said air assets were being deployed by both Thailand and Malaysia to search for survivors.

"It will be easier for us and our sea assets," Romli Mustafa told a press conference on Langkawi on the use of Malaysian aircraft to support maritime patrols, adding that the search operation could last seven days.

Romli said information received by the agency indicated that the boat on which the Rohingya travelled initially had left from Rakhine state, which borders Cox's Bazar in Bangladesh where the sprawling refugee camps are located.

Of the 13 survivors, 11 were Rohingya and two from Bangladesh, authorities said.

In Thailand, authorities recovered refugee cards issued in Bangladesh from the two children identifying them as Rohingya living in the Cox's Bazar camps, according to the Thai official.

Some Rohingya say community members risk the perilous journeys because they see no future in Bangladesh, where foreign aid is shrinking, and they are too afraid to return to Myanmar.

"People are desperate,” said Naser Khan, a Rohingya refugee in Cox’s Bazar. "People are dying in the fighting, dying from hunger. So some think it’s better to die at sea than to die slowly here."