MADRID, January 18 (EUROPA PRESS) –
The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) on Tuesday warned of the increase in deaths of Rohingya refugees attempting to flee by sea from Burma or Bangladesh.
“In 2022, more than 3,500 desperate Rohingya refugees attempted dangerous boat trips across the Andaman Sea and Bay of Bengal. Almost 10 percent died or disappeared at sea,” the refugee agency said.
UNHCR has recorded at least 348 dead or missing in 2022, “making it one of the deadliest years since 2014,” according to a statement that warns that the majority of those involved in the trips are women and children.
That figure represents a 360 percent increase compared to the previous year in 2021, when around 700 people made similar trips.
In this sense, UNHCR has indicated that “humanitarian responsibilities need to be shared more equitably across the region”, although it regrets that maritime authorities in the region, to save people at risk, “have not been heard”.
On the same day, the NGO Human Rights Watch (HRW) denounced new attacks on Rohingya refugees and accused the Bangladesh Armed Police Battalion (APBn) of extorting, arbitrarily detaining and harassing refugees. In addition, the organization has also urged the international community to investigate the alleged abuses against the minority in Cox’s Bazar refugee camp.