TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - More than 500 people are feared dead after two boats capsized off Myanmar in recent days, two UN agencies reported. Most of those onboard come from the persecuted Rohingya community.
A joint statement from the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) and the International Organization for Migration (IOM) on Thursday, July 16, 2026, as reported by Anadolu and cited by Antara, confirmed the departure of the two boats. The passengers of both boats mostly belonged to the Rohingya ethnic group from the Rakhine region in Myanmar at the end of last June.
Some of the passengers on the two ill-fated boats are said to have come from refugee camps in Cox's Bazar, Bangladesh.
The first boat, carrying about 250 people, was reported to have lost contact shortly after departure, according to the two UN agencies.
Meanwhile, the second boat, which was reported to have carried 280 people, is strongly suspected to have sunk off the coast of Ayeyarwady, Myanmar, on July 8.
"The incidents and casualty figures have yet to be officially confirmed," said the two UN agencies.
The UNHCR and IOM also expressed grave concern about the "potentially devastating loss of life" in the boat accident.
“Most were Rohingya passengers risking dangerous sea journeys in search of safety,” said the UNHCR on platform X.
More than 1 million Rohingya Muslim minority have fled from Rakhine State, Myanmar, due to systemic persecution, military violence, and armed attacks, making the refugee camps in Cox's Bazar, Bangladesh a place of mass shelter.
This massive exodus is driven by the lack of recognition of citizenship, with the largest exodus wave occurring since 2017. They flee from Myanmar to places considered safer, both domestically and in Bangladesh and Indonesia.
To save themselves, many of them attempt to cross land borders or take dangerous sea routes through the Bay of Bengal and the Andaman Sea.
Read: What Does Refugee Protection Look Like in Indonesia?
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