Out of options, Rohingya are fleeing Myanmar and Bangladesh by boat despite soaring death toll

By KRISTEN GELINEAU
Associated Press

SYDNEY (AP) — The United Nations’ refugee agency is reporting that one in every eight Rohingya who attempted to flee their homeland of Myanmar and the refugee camps in neighboring Bangladesh by boat last year died or went missing. The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees says 569 of the nearly 4,500 Rohingya who tried to cross the Bay of Bengal and Andaman Sea by boat vanished or died in 2023. That’s the highest death toll since 2014. The Rohingya say global apathy toward their plight, surging violence in Bangladesh’s camps and rampant hunger due to ration cuts have given them little choice but to flee.