At least 12 missing after Rohingya refugee boat sinks off Bangladesh

Agencies | Dhaka           

The Daily Tribune – www.newsofbahrain.com

On Tuesday, at least a dozen people went missing off the coast of Bangladesh, after a boat carrying Rohingya refugees sank in rough weather, the South Asian country's coast guard said.

The fishing trawler left at dawn and was bound for Malaysia before it ran into trouble in the Bay of Bengal, with two search boats scrambling to rescue survivors.

"We have rescued 39 people including 35 Rohingya refugees and four Bangladeshis," coast guard spokesman Lieutenant Al Amin told AFP.

Coast guard station commander Ashiq Ahmed said that at least 50 people were on the boat, which had picked up passengers from several coastal towns before embarking.

"Around a dozen people are still missing. The rescue operation is still [on]going," he told AFP.

The vessel sank near southern Cox's Bazar district — the site of camps that are home to around a million Rohingya refugees.

Most of them arrived in Bangladesh five years ago, after a military crackdown in neighbouring Myanmar, that is now the subject of a genocide investigation at the UN's top court.

Dire conditions in the camps prompt hundreds each year to pay smugglers for passage along the dangerous sea route to Malaysia, which is home to a large Rohingya diaspora.