By JULHAS ALAM The Associated Press
(SEATTLE TIMES) DHAKA, Bangladesh (AP) — More than two dozen Rohingya refugees were missing and feared drowned after a boat carrying them capsized in the Bay of Bengal, the United Nations and Bangladeshi police said Sunday.
The refugees were apparently trying to flee a remote Bangladeshi island. Several thousand Rohingya have been relocated to the island after previously residing in crowded camps near the border with Myanmar.
The relocation has been criticized by the U.N. and human rights groups, who say the island isn’t fit for habitation. The island used to be regularly submerged by monsoon rains, but the government now says it’s been outfitted with protective sea walls, hospitals, schools and mosques.
“On the morning of 14 August, UNHCR was alerted that a boat carrying dozens of Rohingya refugees had capsized close to Bhasan Char island overnight,” the U.N.’s refugee agency said in a Facebook post.
“We are devastated that reportedly many passengers, including women and children, have tragically drowned. The confirmed number is not yet known,” it said.
A police official in Noakhali district, where the island is located, told The Associated Press by phone that about 40 refugees including women and children were in a fishing boat, but it sank in bad weather.