News Desk:
At least two dozen Rohingya people have been killed in a flying ship weeks after failing to reach Malaysia, Coastguard officials said in Bangladesh on Thursday, after 382 hungry survivors were rescued.

A human rights group said it believes many Rohingya-carrying boats, a Muslim minority group from Myanmar, are emerging at sea, with coronavirus locks in Malaysia and Thailand making it difficult for them. to find shelter.

The Bangladesh coastline said the ship was brought ashore late Wednesday.

“They have been at sea for almost two months and are hungry,” one of the coast officials told Reuters in a message.

The 382 survivors aboard will be sent to Myanmar, the official said.

Video footage showed a crowd of mostly women and children, some stick-thin and unable to stand, aided by the shore. Someone is drowning in the sand. A refugee told a reporter that they were withdrawing three times from Malaysia.

The Rohingya are not recognized as Buddhist-Myanmar majority citizens and are complaining of prosecution. Myanmar denies prosecution of Rohingya but says they are not a native ethnic group but have migrated from South Asia.

More than a million people live in refugee camps in southern Bangladesh, most have been evacuated from their homes in Myanmar following a 2017 military suppression that the army said was a response to rebel attacks by Rohingya.

For years, the Rohingya boarded smugglers’ boats in hopes of securing Southeast Asia. Travels usually occur in the dry season, between November and March, when the sea is calm.

Chris Lewa, director of the Arakan Project, said he believes many boats are stranded.

“The Rohingya may encounter closed borders supported by a xenophobic public narrative,” he said in a message.

A Malaysian state police official told Reuters that many boats were trying to reach the shores and that surveillance had been lifted.

A police official in southern Thailand said five Rohingya-carrying boats were injured on the coast of Satun province late Monday. It is not possible to independently confirm this. --gotechdaily.com