UN fears two shipwrecks off Myanmar coast may have killed 427 Rohingya
At least 427 Rohingya, Myanmar’s Muslim minority, may have perished at sea after two boat tragedies off the coast of Myanmar earlier this month, as they sought safe refuge, according to the UN refugee agency, UNHCR.
Reports indicated that 514 Rohingya were traveling on two boats. The first one carried 267 people, with more than half reportedly leaving from refugee camps in the southeastern Cox’s Bazar district of Bangladesh, while the remainder departed from Rakhine State in Myanmar. This boat sank on May 9, with 66 survivors.
The second boat, carrying 247 Rohingya — including refugees from the Cox’s Bazar camps and others fleeing Rakhine State — capsized on May 10, leaving only 21 survivors.
Bangladesh has been hosting more than 1.3 million persecuted Rohingya Muslims since they fled a Myanmar military crackdown in August 2017.
Nearly 1 of 5 people attempting perilous sea movements in the region have been reported dead or missing in 2025, making the waters of the Andaman Sea and Bay of Bengal among the deadliest in the world.
In a post on X, UNHCR High Commissioner Filippo Grandi said news of the double tragedy was “a reminder of the desperate situation” of the Rohingya “and of the hardship faced by refugees in Bangladesh as humanitarian aid dwindles.”
Hai Kyung Jun, director of UNHCR’s regional bureau for Asia and the Pacific, said, “The dire humanitarian situation, exacerbated by funding cuts, is having a devastating impact on the lives of Rohingya, with more and more resorting to dangerous journeys to seek safety, protection, and a dignified life for themselves and their families.”
In 2024, some 657 Rohingya died in the region’s waters, according to UNHCR.
The agency urged more financial support to stabilize the lives of Rohingya refugees in host countries, including Bangladesh, and those displaced inside Myanmar. Its request for $383.1 million for support in 2025 is currently only 30 percent funded, it said.
UNHCR received over $2 billion in donations from the United States in 2024, or 40% of its total donations.
A UNHCR spokesperson said that in March it had frozen more than $300 million of planned activities as part of cost-saving.
In 2017, more than a million Rohingya fled to neighbouring Bangladesh from Myanmar’s Rakhine State following a brutal crackdown by Myanmar’s military.
At least 180,000 of those who fled are now facing deportation back to Myanmar, while those who stayed behind in Rakhine have endured dire conditions confined to refugee camps.
