Narinjara News, May 24, 2025

The United Nations has conveyed its profound dismay regarding the loss of 427 Rohingya refugees in two boat tragedies near the coast of Myanmar on May 9 and 10. 

Preliminary reports suggest that a vessel transporting 267 individuals overturned on May 9, leaving just 66 survivors. The next day, a different boat with 247 individuals overturned, resulting in just 21 people surviving, as stated by the UN refugee agency (UNHCR) on May 23. 

The event may be the most lethal individual maritime incident for the Rohingya this year, with UNHCR projecting that 657 Rohingya could perish at sea in 2024.

According to UNHCR, the Rohingya aboard the boats are thought to have escaped from the refugee camps in Cox’s Bazar, Bangladesh, or from conflict-ridden regions in Myanmar’s Rakhine state. 

UNHCR Commissioner Filippo Grandi posted on X social media that the tragedy underscores the struggles of the Rohingya and the difficulties they encounter, particularly as global assistance has decreased. 

Following years of systematic oppression in Myanmar, hundreds of thousands of Rohingya have escaped the nation, frequently taking perilous sea paths to find safety. Hundreds of thousands of Rohingya escaped to Bangladesh in 2017 following a violent crackdown by the Myanmar military. 

Currently, around 180,000 individuals face the threat of being forcibly sent back to Myanmar, while those still in Rakhine State continue to be caught in terrible conditions. 

Since the military seized power in 2021, toppling the democratically elected government, the humanitarian crisis has escalated, and tensions in Rakhine State have increased between the military regime and ethnic armed groups like the Arakan Army.