'Left to die': Fates of 5 Rohingya boats across Asia spotlight enduring crisis of stateless Muslim minority

From the refugee camps of Cox's Bazar in Bangladesh, Rohingya activist Mohammed Rezuwan Khan watched for weeks in hope and dread as the fishing boats carrying his sister and niece drifted south without sufficient food, water or safe harbour, but targeting a fresh start thousands of kilometres away.

Their boat was one of at least five to set out in late November, Khan said, in information backed up by the United Nations' High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR).

Each boat met a different end, reflecting the dice roll Rohingya Muslims must endure to gain some control over their lives.

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One boat was rescued far off course by Sri Lanka's navy on December 18. Ten days earlier, another boat was prevented from sinking by a Vietnamese flagged vessel, but the Vietnamese authorities handed passengers to authorities in Myanmar, the country they originally fled.

A third is feared to have capsized, with its estimated 180 passengers - including women and children - presumed dead.

But two made it to their destination: the Indonesian province of Aceh - the last one on Monday.

The desperation and relief of the emaciated survivors were captured on videos shared online as they staggered onto the beach in Aceh's Pidie district, crying as they made solid ground for the first time in over a month.

Khan told This Week in Asia that his 27-year-old sister and five-year-old niece were among those who made it ashore on Monday.

"It feels like they have been born again, because none of us knew if they would be able to [survive]. They haven't had any food for weeks, and other people in their boat also died," he said. "We had already started to accept that they could also die in the boat."

The Rohingya are a stateless Muslim minority persecuted in Myanmar and taken in huge numbers by Bangladesh but unable to live and work freely outside their vast camps.

Around 1 million members of the minority group are trapped in Bangladesh's congested camps, grappling with extreme poverty, unsanitary living conditions and long-term health issues only worsened by the pandemic.

Many have lived in the camps for years - fleeing their homes in Buddhist-majority Myanmar in successive waves.

The majority were driven out from Myanmar in 2017 after a military crackdown, described by the US State Department as a "genocide".

Most Rohingya remain denied citizenship in Myanmar and are persecuted as illegal immigrants from South Asia.

Since 2020, more than 3,000 Rohingya have attempted the journey from Bangladesh by sea, according to the UN, with women and children accounting for two thirds of them.

This year could mark one of the deadliest years at sea for the group, said UNHCR, as the number of those fleeing spikes significantly.

Rohingya boats have typically avoided South Asian waters, with several countries in the region cracking down on refugees in the past few years.

India, for example, has become increasingly hostile towards its 20,000 Rohingya refugees, with the ruling party calling for their deportation back to Myanmar.

While Sri Lanka is not a signatory to the 1951 UN Convention on Refugees, its navy rescued 105 Rohingya from a distressed vessel that drifted into its waters on December 18.

Captain Gayan Wickramasuriya, a spokesperson for the Sri Lankan navy, told This Week in Asia that over half of the rescued were minors, while the oldest was close to 80 years old.

The boat was bound for Indonesia, Wickramasuriya said. "They did not have any intention to come to Sri Lanka," he added.

The group was subsequently split up and placed in immigration detention centres. A foreign ministry source said that the refugees had been placed in these centres for safety purposes, "since most are women and children".

Indonesia has seen nearly 500 Rohingya reach its shores in the past six weeks, according to the UNHCR.

Pidie district police chief Fauzi told This Week in Asia that children accounted for most of the 174 Rohingya refugees who had landed on the beach on Monday.

"They are in a sick and weak condition," Fauzi said. "They told us that they had spent 35 days in the sea, but they only had food for 10 days, after that they did not have water and food."

The security ministry said in a statement on Tuesday that the government was working with the International Organisation for Migration and the UNHCR to move the Rohingya into shelters in nearby cities.

A day earlier, another boat carrying at least 57 refugees had also landed in Aceh with a broken engine. It had been drifting at sea for a month.

But for most Rohingya, Indonesia is not the final destination, said Lewa. Malaysia is the goal, she said, as their families have relocated there.

In early December, a Vietnamese oil service vessel rescued 154 people from a sinking boat in the Andaman Sea and transferred them to Myanmar's navy.

In a cruel twist in fate, these Rohingya may well have ended up where they started: at risk of prosecution or worse in Myanmar where the junta seized power in February 2021, extending their hardline views of who belonged in Myanmar.

Human Rights Watch found that the junta has arrested an estimated 2,000 Rohingya for "unauthorised travel" since the coup, with many being sentenced up to five years in prison.

Activists monitoring local media reports learned that the refugees on the boat had been transferred to the capital of Myanmar's Rakhine state, Sittwe, where they likely face similar prosecution.

But there are fears of an even worse fate for another boat that left around the same time.

The vessel - thought to be carrying around 180 refugees - is feared to have capsized after family members lost contact with those on board in early December, according to the UNHCR.

If the boat's loss is confirmed, it would bring the death toll of Rohingya refugees at sea this year to about 400.

Sayedur Rahman, 38, who fled to Malaysia in 2012 from Myanmar, told Reuters that his wife and three children were among the missing on the vessel.

"In 2017, my family came to Bangladesh to save their lives," Rahman said. "But they are now all gone ... I'm totally devastated ... We Rohingya are left to die ... on the land, at sea. Everywhere."

Meanwhile, Rohingya advocates fear interest in the group is waning.

Chris Lewa of the Arakan Project, which provides support to Rohingya, said the passengers could have been rescued weeks ago.

"We had the location of these boats through GPS, and it would have been so easy for any state in the region to organise an immediate rescue," said Lewa. "But nothing happened for three weeks, even after we urged and requested and shared the location of the boats every day."

Currently, over 100,000 Rohingya Muslims are officially registered as refugees with the UNHCR in Malaysia.

Malaysia has long been a favoured destination for Rohingya seeking a better life after the 2017 military crackdown in Myanmar.

But in the early months of the Covid-19 pandemic in 2020, Malaysia - which does not recognise refugee status - shut its borders to incoming Rohingya refugees.

UNHCR Asia-Pacific Director Indrika Ratwatte also said last week that pleas to rescue those adrift were being "continuously ignored" by countries in South and Southeast Asia.

"These are human beings - men, women and children. We need to see the states in the region help save lives and not let people die," he added.

For refugees in Bangladesh's camps, taking to sea still offers the best hope of making a new life.

Rohingya activist Khan said all his community wanted was the suffering to end. "We don't want to live in the camps, so I beg that the international community do not forget the Rohingya."

This article originally appeared on the South China Morning Post (SCMP).

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