The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) has revealed that nearly 900 Rohingya refugees were reported dead or missing in the Bay of Bengal and the Andaman Sea in 2025. This marked the deadliest year on record for maritime movements in South and Southeast Asia, the UN stated on Friday, with thousands continuing to undertake perilous journeys in 2026.

Speaking to reporters in Geneva, UNHCR spokesperson Babar Baloch described the area as an “unmarked graveyard for thousands of desperate Rohingya refugees,” noting that approximately 5,000 are thought to have drowned at sea over the past decade. Hundreds of thousands of Rohingya began fleeing Myanmar in 2017 amid an ethnic cleansing campaign, largely settling in refugee camps in Bangladesh, which continues to provide refuge to those escaping today.

However, humanitarian aid in Bangladesh has been reduced due to funding shortfalls, and access to education and opportunities in the camps is limited, prompting people to attempt dangerous sea crossings. Baloch reported that over 2,800 Rohingya have done so this year, with the majority departing from Cox’s Bazar in Bangladesh or Rakhine State in Myanmar, hoping to reach Malaysia or Indonesia.

While Baloch emphasized that most wish to return to Myanmar once conditions allow, “ongoing conflict, persecution, and the absence of citizenship prospects leave them with really little hope” of doing so. In recent years, over half of those making sea journeys have been women and children, who face risks of trafficking and exploitation. Earlier this month, an overcrowded trawler carrying about 250 Rohingya refugees and Bangladeshi nationals sank in the Andaman Sea, with hundreds more missing.

The UNHCR hopes that highlighting the record death toll will raise awareness of “what the Rohingyas are going through inside Myanmar and in the refugee camps and in the wider region,” and prompt solutions to avoid another record toll in 2026.

Source: www.aljazeera.com