The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees launched an urgent appeal on Saturday, December 23, to rescue 185 Rohingya, whose makeshift boat was last spotted off the coast of the Andaman and Nicobar Islands, in the Indian Ocean. Time is running out, warns the UNHCR, which reports one victim on board and around ten people in critical condition.
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The UN has called on all regional maritime authorities to act urgently to rescue the boat in distress which, according to the UN agency, is transporting 185 refugees from the Rohingya minority, the majority women and children.
The UNHCR specifies that around 70 people on board are children and 88 women. A UNHCR spokesperson speaks of a desperate situation, hence the need for coastal authorities to deploy all their search and rescue capabilities in order to avoid a new disaster.
We are calling on regional coastal authorities for urgent action to save a reported 185 desperate people on board a boat in distress, last heard to be near the Andaman and Nicobar Islands. https://t.co/vXD9mH67xL
— UNHCR, the UN Refugee Agency (@Refugees) December 24, 2023
The route taken by the refugees is unknown at this stage. But since 2017, a dark year for this persecuted Muslim minority – which was forced to exodus to Bangladesh to flee the abuses of the Burmese army – thousands of Rohingya have undertaken risky journeys, from Burma or refugee camps in Bangladesh, to reach Malaysia or Indonesia.
Since last year, more than 570 Rohingya refugees have died or gone missing.
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