At Least 15 Dead as Boat Carrying Rohingya Capsizes Off Bangladesh's Coast - Reports
At least 15 people died while dozens more remain missing at sea after a boat carrying over 100 members of the Myanmar Rohingya Muslim minority capsized near a Bangladeshi island early Tuesday, local media reported
MOSCOW (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 11th February, 2020) At least 15 people died while dozens more remain missing at sea after a boat carrying over 100 members of the Myanmar Rohingya Muslim minority capsized near a Bangladeshi island early Tuesday, local media reported.
According to the Dhaka Tribune, 70 people have been rescued and were given Primary treatment in the hours following the trawler's sinking near St. Martin's Island in the Bay of Bengal. Rescue operations are still underway, the newspaper reported.
Bangladesh has been experiencing an influx of Rohingya refugees in recent years from neighboring Myanmar as reports from the region continuously describe systematic violence against the Muslim minority in the country. According to UN figures, around 700,000 Rohingya refugees now live in squalid conditions in Bangladeshi refugee camps following hostilities that erupted when the government launched an offensive in Rakhine as a response to an attack on security forces' posts in August of 2017.
In 2018, the UN Independent International Fact-Finding Mission on Myanmar issued a report saying that there were grounds to believe that the Myanmar leadership had committed genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes. On November 11, 2019, the Republic of The Gambia initiated proceedings at the UN-backed International Court of Justice (ICJ) against Myanmar, accusing it of engaging in atrocities on a massive scale against the Rohingya Muslims. In January, the ICJ ordered the country to use all possible measures to prevent acts that constitute genocide against the Rohingya.