UNHCR: Record number of Rohingya refugees perished at sea last year
UNHCR: Record number of Rohingya refugees perished at sea last year
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The United Nations refugee agency has announced that nearly 900 Rohingya refugees were reported dead or missing in the Bay of Bengal and the Andaman Sea in 2025, Al Jazeera reported.
This was the deadliest year on record for maritime movements in South and South East Asia, and thousands of people continue to make the dangerous journeys in 2026, the UN said on Friday.
Speaking to reporters in Geneva, the UNHCR’s spokesperson, Babar Baloch, described the area as an “unmarked graveyard for thousands of desperate Rohingya refugees”, noting that some 5,000 are thought to have drowned at sea over the last decade.
Hundreds of thousands of Rohingya refugees began fleeing Myanmar in 2017 amid an ethnic cleansing campaign. They largely settled in refugee camps in Bangladesh, which continues to give refuge to those fleeing today.
However, humanitarian aid in the country has been reduced due to funding shortfalls, and there is limited access to education and opportunities in the camps, prompting people to attempt the dangerous sea crossings.
The UNHCR hopes that highlighting the record death toll will make people aware 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.
