\u201cThis makes, sadly, the Andaman Sea and the Bay of Bengal an unmarked graveyard for thousands of desperate Rohingya refugees,\u201d\u00a0<\/strong>said UNHCR spokesperson Babar Baloch, speaking in Geneva.<\/p>\nSince 2012,\u00a0nearly 200,000 Rohingya refugees have risked their lives on dangerous sea journeys to escape misery and persecution. In 2017, hundreds of thousands of Rohingya fled Myanmar for Bangladesh, amid persecution characterized as a \u201ctextbook example of ethnic cleansing\u201d by the then UN human rights chief,\u00a0Zeid Ra\u2018ad al-Hussein.<\/p>\n
Earlier this week, UNHCR reported news that hundreds of Rohingya were missing believed drowned after a shipwreck in the Andaman Sea on 8 April, off the coast of the country hosting many from the persecuted minority, Bangladesh.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Myanmar not safe to return<\/h2>\n
\u201cWhile most Rohingya refugees wish to return to Myanmar once conditions allow for a voluntary, dignified and safe return, ongoing conflict, persecution, and the absence of citizenship prospects leave them with really little hope,\u201d Mr. Baloch stressed.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cNo one would put their family on a risky boat knowing that the chances of survival are really low if the sense of desperation is not there. If there is no hope, we fear more people may lose their lives,\u201d he continued.<\/p>\n
With no apparent end to these deadly sea crossings in sight, UNHCR hopes that by flagging the record death toll the world \u201crecognizes what the Rohingyas are going through inside Myanmar and in the refugee camps and in the wider region as well and step forward to come up with solutions for the desperate Rohingya refugees, that we don’t see 2026 becoming another deadly year\u201d.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
\n
Source link <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Some 5,000 Rohingya refugees are believed to have drowned at sea over approximately the last decade.\u00a0\u201cThis…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":84601,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"content-type":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-84600","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-asia-pacific"],"yoast_head":"\n
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