Bodies of 16 Rohingyas, mostly children, wash up on Bangladesh shore

Bodies of 16 Rohingya Muslims, who have drowned in the capsize of a refugee boat from Myanmar, have washed up on the shore in Ukhia of Cox's Bazar, police say.

Cox's Bazar Correspondentbdnews24.com
Published : 28 Sept 2017, 02:26 PM
Updated : 28 Sept 2017, 05:39 PM

Additional Superintendent of Police Md Afruzul Haque Tutul said the bodies, mostly of children, were found at Paqthuartek of Inani Beach in Jaliapalong union on Thursday afternoon.

Photo: muhammad mostafigur rahman

Four Rohingya people, including two men and two women, were rescued alive and sent to hospital, the police officer said.

"Many are floating in the sea. The rescue operation is under way," he said.

The bodies have been kept at Inani Police Camp.

The International Organization for Migration or IOM's Dhaka office has tweeted that a boat carrying 120 Rohingya refugees capsized on its way to Bangladesh.

The UNICEF in a statement, citing the deaths of several children in the refugee boat accident, has called for international support to the efforts being led by the Bangladesh government to deliver urgent humanitarian aid and ensure the protection of children’s rights.

The accident "is a grim reminder of the extraordinary risks that desperate Rohingya are taking in order to escape the violence engulfing their homeland", it said.


 

Bodies of many of the Rohingyas, mostly women and children, started to wash up on the shore of Bangladesh along with beginning of the exodus of refugees from Myanmar's trouble-torn Rakhine State following a violent counteroffensive by the army in response to insurgent attacks on security forces on Aug 25.