Two Rohingya Boats Gone Missing
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| The Rohingya that arrived in Malaysia with 56 people aboard on March 31 [Photo: ROYAL THAI ARMY / HANDOUT / VIA AFP-JIJI] |
RB News
April 8, 2018
Sittwe (Akyab)/Kuala
Lumpur -- Two Rohingya boats with
approximately 140 people on board have gone missing en route to Malaysia since
they left Sittwe (Akyab) on March 24, reliable sources say.
One boat with 56
Rohingya people on board arrived in Malaysia on March 31, which the Malaysian
Navy rescued and later handed to the Immigration Department (Read HERE). The 2 boats left
from Sittwe's 'Thae Chaung' beach on the same day with this boat but have been
missing since then.
"Earlier, we
have come to know one boat reached to Malaysia on March 31. But 2 other boats
with 140 people in total, mostly women and children, have still been missing. They
have lost contacts with us and we don't know their whereabouts. Their relatives
are extremely worried," said Mohammed (pseudonym), Rohingya in Sittwe, to
RB News.
The people are
leaving are mostly from IDP (Internally Displaced People) Camps in Sittwe,
where more than 140,000 people have been forced to live apartheid condition
since 2012. And so, more boats are likely to leave Myanmar in the upcoming
weeks.
An internally
displaced Rohingya in Sittwe said "we can't move anywhere. Our access to
livelihoods has been barred. We can't work and have enough food to eat. We are hopeless
and don't know when this condition is going to end. We have been forced to live
in prison-like-camps since 2012.
"That's why
those who have relatives in Malaysia are paying the agents and some properties
to sell are selling them off so that they can pay the agents to leave for
Malaysia. Two more boats are about to leave soon."
Sources say that
each person leaving for Malaysia has to pay Kyat 700,000 to the agents and the
agents, in turn, have to bribe the Myanmar Police or Security Force in Sittwe
Kyat 10 Million per boat. And each boat can accommodate around 100 people on
board.
The Rohingya
people subjected to Genocide by the Myanmar military and Security Forces are
fleeing the country for Malaysia, which they consider safe haven, through
various other routes such as by lands across central Myanmar and Thailand.
About 700,000
Rohingyas have fled from Myanmar to Bangladesh since last year and more people
are still fleeing as the Genocide in Myanmar continues. Many of these survivors
in Bangladesh are reported to have been fleeing the country from Cox's Bazaar
and Chittagong districts.
[Report by Saeed
Arakani & M.S. Anwar]
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