At least 250 people, including Rohingya refugees and Bangladeshi nationals, are missing or feared dead when a boat capsized in the Andaman Sea en route to Malaysia recently, according to the UN refugee and migration agency.
Although details of the accident are still unclear, Bangladesh Coast Guard spokesman Commander Sabir Alam Suzan told the AP today that nine people, including three Rohingya refugees and six Bangladeshis, were rescued on April 9. Suzan said the Bangladeshi-flagged MT Meghna Pride rescued the nine people when the crew spotted them floating in the sea after their boat capsized.
It is not yet known whether a search is being conducted today or exactly when the ship sank.
The UN refugee agency (UNHCR) and the International Organization for Migration (IOM) said in a joint statement yesterday that the ship had set off from Teknaf in Bangladesh's southern Cox's Bazar district with a large number of passengers bound for Malaysia.
The IOM said in a new statement today that the ship appears to have sunk on April 9th.
Overcrowding, strong winds and rough seas caused the ship to lose control and sink, UN agencies said.
A Rohingya refugee who survived a boat capsizing and was rescued today spoke about her ordeal. Rahela Begum, who said she set off for Malaysia on April 4, said there were about 20 women on the boat when it sank.
She said she had been floating in the sea for two days and one night. She was brought to a refugee camp.
"There were a lot of people on the boat but when it sank I have no idea what happened to them or where they went," she said.
According to her, after floating for two days and one night, she lost a piece of wood she was holding and then lost consciousness. When she regained consciousness, she said she saw that Allah had sent a ship and that the ship had saved her.
A UNHCR communications representative in Cox's Bazar said today that the agency still has no new information.
Another coast guard media representative told the AP by phone today that the rescued people, eight men and one woman, were all safe and were handed over to the coast guard, who brought them to police in Teknaf.
The official said the rescue was not part of any official search operation because the area is outside Bangladeshi territory, and that the crew of the MT Meghna Pride rescued the people while they were en route to Indonesia from Chittagong, Bangladesh.
UNHCR and IOM stated that the disappearance of these people shows that the displacement of the Rohingya people continues in the absence of durable solutions.
They said ongoing violence in Myanmar's Rakhine state has made the return of Rohingya to Myanmar uncertain, while limited humanitarian assistance and limited access to education and employment in refugee camps continue to push Rohingya refugees to choose risky sea journeys, often based on false promises of higher wages and better opportunities abroad.
UNHCR and IOM have called on the international community to step up funding and solidarity and provide life-saving assistance to Rohingya refugees in Bangladesh, where more than a million Rohingya from Myanmar have been hosted.
In 2025, more than 6.500 Rohingya refugees made dangerous sea journeys from Bangladesh and Myanmar, and nearly 900 of them lost their lives, the IOM said. In the Andaman Sea and Bay of Bengal in particular, the number of deaths and missing people increased by more than 40 percent compared to 2024, the UN agency said.
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