Malaysia steps up search for missing Rohingya boats, at least 11 dead

Malaysian maritime patrols scoured coastal waters in the Andaman Sea on Monday in search of dozens of missing members of Myanmar’s persecuted Rohingya minority who police believe were on a boat that capsized and sank, killing at least 11 people.

Hundreds of Rohingya boarded a vessel towards Malaysia two weeks ago, before being split into groups and sent to two boats on Thursday, said Khairul Azhar Nuruddin, police chief on Malaysia’s northern Langkawi island, from where search operations are continuing across 255.7 square nautical miles (877 sq km).

Long persecuted in Buddhist-majority Myanmar, the mainly Muslim Rohingya face escalating violence in their war-torn homeland and worsening conditions in crowded refugee camps in neighbouring Bangladesh where 1.3 million of them live.

There were around 70 people in the vessel that sank near Langkawi, while the fate of the other boat carrying 230 passengers remained unclear, according to Malaysian authorities. They have found 13 survivors and seven bodies.

In neighbouring Thailand, authorities have recovered four bodies, including two Rohingya girls, a maritime security official said.

“The Thai Navy and Marine Police have carried out additional inspections,” Sakra Kapilakarn, the governor of Thailand’s southern Satun province, told Reuters.