An audio conversation between a Rohingya refugee and his family members, who are among around 160 others heading for Malaysia on an engine boat, reveals that they ran out of food and fuel and were adrift in the Andaman sea.
“We're dying here. We haven't had any food for 8-10 days. We're starving. Three people have died,” says a Rohingya man on board the boat.
Mohammed Rezuwan Khan, a Rohingya activist, said the boat had left Cox's Bazar around three weeks ago, and its engine stopped functioning a few days later. Strong currents drove it first to Thailand, then to Malaysia and finally to Indonesia before pulling it back into the Indian ocean, he added.
Meanwhile, Sri Lanka's navy has rescued 104 Rohingya adrift off the Indian Ocean island's northern coast, an official told Reuters yesterday. However, Rezuwan told Dhaka Tribune that the Rohingyas rescued by the Sri Lankan authorities were on a different boat.
Shamsuddoza Nayan, an additional commissioner at the Office of the Refugee Relief and Repatriation Commissioner (RRRC), declined to make any comment on the matter.
The audio clip, believed to be recorded on Sunday, says the boat has a satellite phone and a GPS unit, and the Rohingya community people were able to make periodic contact with them.
Many Rohingya risk their lives every year by attempting to reach Southeast Asian countries such as Thailand, Malaysia and Indonesia on rickety vessels with the help of traffickers in search of a better life.
Three boats yet to be traced
At least four boats left Bangladesh between November 25 and 27, and another in the first week of December, according to the Arakan Project rights group. Dhaka Tribune could not confirm the information immediately.
According to various unconfirmed sources, one of the five boats was rescued and then handed over to the Myanmar government, while the Sri Lankan authorities have just rescued the other.
Rezuwan told Guardian last week that his elder sister and her five-year-old daughter were on board the boat. “They need to be urgently rescued because they don't have water or food,” he said.
Urgent calls for rescue
The Arakan Project interviewed the families of those on board the boat, which has remained untraced.
Its Director Chris Lewa said the boat was leaking and that people did not have water or food. There had been inaction from governments in the region, she told Guardian: “No one wants to take any responsibility.”
Lewa added that the boat was in Malaysia's search and rescue region, according to information sent by those on board last week.
Lilianne Fan, chair of the Rohingya working group at the Asia Pacific Refugee Rights Network, also consulted relatives of those on board.
She said a family member last had contact with the boat at 4pm Kuala Lumpur time on December 9, and that the boat had yet to get help at that point.
“They say the conditions are extremely dire; people have not had food or water. It's really a very desperate situation,” she told the Guardian.
Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) issued a statement on December 10 asking the Malaysian authorities to allow the safe disembarkation of the refugees urgently.
“While MSF has no information about the specific health needs of people on the boat, it is very likely that provision of life-saving medical assistance will be required as deaths have been reported,” the statement added.
104 Rohingyas rescued
The boat rescued on Sunday night was first detected by the Sri Lanka Navy when it was 3.5 nautical miles from shore.
Later, a search and rescue operation was launched to eventually tow the vessel to a northern harbour on Sunday night, a navy spokesperson, Captain Gayan Wickramasuriya, told Reuters.
"The people have been handed over to the police," Wickramasuriya said. "The police will present them before a magistrate who will decide the next step."
A navy statement said 104 Myanmar nationals were found aboard a small trawler suspected to have originated from Myanmar and was heading to Indonesia when it ran into engine trouble in rough seas.
Wickramasuriya said 39 women and 23 minors were among the rescued people, and an 80-year old man, one mother and her two children were admitted to a hospital suffering from minor sickness.
Risky voyage continues
On October 4, the Bangladesh Coast Guard rescued some 39 people, including Rohingya refugees, after a trawler carrying them capsized in the Bay of Bengal while they were illegally trying to leave for Malaysia.
The incident took place in Cox's Bazar's Teknaf upazila. Among the rescued, four people are Bangladeshi nationals, and the rest are Rohingya refugees, including women.
On March 25, members of the Rapid Action Battalion (RAB) rescued 57 Rohingyas, and a Bangladeshi national, off the Ukhiya Chepatkhali coast in Cox's Bazar while they were being trafficked to Malaysia.
The elite force also arrested two members of a human trafficking gang and seized a trawler during their drive. Among the rescued, 57 are Rohingya refugees and one Bangladeshi citizen. Of them, 10 were children and 24 were women.
On March 21, police rescued 135 Rohingyas, who were on their way to Malaysia illegally, from Sonadia Island of Maheshkhali Upazila in Cox's Bazar.
The Rohingyas put their lives at risk to go to Malaysia on an engine boat with help of some middlemen, who had gathered them in Sonadia Island from Kutupalong Rohingya camp in Ukhiya.
