More refugees risk dangerous sea journeys from Myanmar as crisis worsens
More refugees risk dangerous sea journeys from Myanmar as crisis worsens
UNHCR staff help Rohingya refugees disembark in South Aceh, Indonesia, in October 2024, after weeks at sea.
Since the boat he was travelling on reached a beach in East Aceh, Indonesia, a month ago, Ali, 30, has been staying at a crowded site with some 380 other stateless Rohingya refugees who risked similar sea journeys in recent months.
He is worried about his parents and siblings, who remain in the camp for internally displaced people in Myanmar’s western Rakhine State where he spent the last 13 years. Life there was never easy, but since late 2023, residents of the camp and communities throughout Rakhine State have been paying a heavy price amid a resurgence of conflict.
Hundreds of civilians have been killed by indiscriminate shelling, aerial bombardments and landmines, while others have been forcibly recruited, displaced or cut off from their livelihoods and essential goods and services, including health care, food and clean water.
The conflict has also severely restricted the amount of humanitarian aid that UNHCR, the UN Refugee Agency, and other humanitarian organizations have been able to deliver to camps for displaced Rohingya like the one where Ali was living. Humanitarian access to parts of Rakhine State has been challenging since the conflict reignited in November 2023, although some assistance is still provided by local partners and volunteers.
Two weeks at sea
The Rohingya have long faced violence and discrimination in Myanmar, but the current conflict has re-kindled long-simmering tensions between Rohingya and Rakhine communities. Leaving the camp to look for work or food became highly risky, says Ali. “Sometimes we would go to the beach to catch fish to earn money … but they would catch us and put us in jail or even kill us. We had no access to work for a while, and life was tough. There were no opportunities to earn a living.”
When he heard that other people in the camp were planning to escape by boat, he decided to join them, together with his wife and two children, and his younger brother.
The journey took two weeks. “Many of us were very sick on the boat, vomiting, and having various health problems,” he says, noting that of the 125 people on board, 35 were children. “After 10 days, we ran out of food and water.”
The boat reached Malaysia’s coastline just as it ran out of supplies, but Ali reports that the Malaysian Navy stopped them coming ashore and pushed the boat back out to sea. When they tried to approach Thailand, they were blocked again.
The boat finally reached the coast of Indonesia’s Aceh Province on 5 January. Ali and the other passengers waded ashore and sat on the beach until they were discovered by some local people who contacted the authorities.
“I would never recommend anyone to take the boat journey here,” he says now. “I faced many difficulties I could not have imagined.”
Shifting routes
Despite the risks, increasing numbers of Rohingya are making similar journeys. Last year, more than 7,800 attempted to flee Myanmar by boat – an 80 per cent increase compared to 2023 – of which over 650 died or went missing. A further 700 have taken boats since the start of this year.
While in 2023 the majority of boats departed from Bangladesh, which hosts over 1 million Rohingya refugees in camps in Cox’s Bazar, since last year most boats have been leaving directly from Myanmar.
As well as heading out to sea towards Malaysia, Thailand, Indonesia and even Sri Lanka, in the past year thousands of Rohingya have also tried to cross the Naf River to reach safety in Bangladesh. Among them was 19-year-old Sadeqa Bibi and her 2-year-old son. Until 2024, she and her husband had been leading what she described as “a normal life” in a village near the town of Maungdaw in Rakhine. But food prices began to rise and become unaffordable and on 17 June, as they prepared to cook meat for the Eid al-Adha meal, bombs began to rain down on their village. They fled to Maungdaw, where they spent the night, but the following morning a bomb struck the wall of the house where they were staying, killing Sadeqa’s husband and severing her brother’s hand.
Sadeqa and her son, along with her parents and younger siblings, managed to secure passage on a boat crossing the Naf River. “There were many people on the river; more than 50 were in a single boat,” she recalled. “Among them, around 10 were either dead or near death from gunshot wounds … After enduring a full day and night of hunger, we finally reached land the following evening.”
Sadeqa Bibi and her two-year-old son fled Myanmar after her husband was killed in bombardments.
After reaching Bangladesh, Sadeqa and her family stayed with relatives living in one of the camps who shared with them the little they had. They soon decided they had no choice but to leave and boarded a boat that spent weeks at sea. Without enough food or water, they resorted to drinking seawater to survive and three people died. By the time the boat reached the coast of South Aceh on 18 October, many of the remaining 151 people on board were seriously ill. It took several days of advocacy efforts by UNHCR and its partners before Sadeqa and the other passengers were finally allowed ashore. Despite their initial opposition, the local community donated food, water and clothing to the refugees.
“Having spent days on the water, we were constantly praying to Allah, asking when we would be able to set foot on land,” said Sadeqa. “When [they] rescued us and brought us to shore, we were incredibly grateful.”
Longing for a brighter future
UNHCR is working with the local government and the International Organization for Migration to manage seven temporary sites in Aceh and North Sumatra where Rohingya refugees have been staying since arriving by boat. Only two of them in Aceh have been designated by the government as formal sites with adequate conditions. UNHCR is providing food through a local partner organization as well as security, counselling and other services to support the refugees.
A UNHCR staff member talks to two Rohingya refugees at a site in South Aceh.
With the calmer waters between monsoon seasons and the situation in Myanmar continuing to deteriorate, more Rohingya are expected to risk such journeys in the coming weeks. UNHCR has called on States in the region to prioritize saving lives and to ensure that measures to control borders do not affect the rights of people to reach safety.
Ali is thankful for the safety and support he has received in Indonesia, but the country is not a party to the 1951 Refugee Convention and does not allow refugees the right to work. He longs to go somewhere he can find employment and send his children to school. “I want my children to have a good education; I don’t want them to be uneducated like me. I want them to have a bright future.”
