At least 100 Rohingya are stranded in a boat off India’s Andaman Islands and as many as 16-20 may have died of thirst and hunger or have drowned, their relatives and activists said. Another boat, carrying more than 100 Rohingya, was rescued by Sri Lanka’s navy on the weekend.
Each year, many Rohingya risk their lives boarding rickety vessels to escape violence in Myanmar and squalor in Bangladesh refugee camps. Many attempt to reach Malaysia. On December 2, the United Nations refugee agency issued an alert over a sharp rise in the number of people attempting to cross the Andaman Sea from Bangladesh and Myanmar.
In 2018, more than 730,000 Rohingya fled to neighbouring Bangladesh following a military crackdown in Myanmar that witnesses said included mass killings and rape.
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