Posted April 17, 2020 02:28:34

Photo: Almost four hundred ethnic Rohingyas were rescued from the boat. Officials said at least 32 others died during the weeks at sea. (AP Photo/Suzauddin Rubel)

Bangladesh's coast guard has rescued 396 starving Rohingya refugees who had been drifting at sea for weeks after failing to reach Malaysia.

At least 32 ethnic Rohingya died on the ship during those weeks adrift, Bangladesh coast guard officials said.

A human rights group said it believed more boats carrying Rohingya — a Muslim minority — were adrift at sea, with coronavirus lockdowns in Malaysia and Thailand making it harder for them to find refuge.

"They were at sea for about two months and were starving," a Bangladesh coastguard official said.

The 396 survivors are to be handed to the UN refugee agency, according to the official, who had initially said they would be sent to Myanmar.

Video images showed a crowd comprised mostly of women and children, some stick-thin and unable to stand, being helped to shore. One emaciated man was laying on the sand.

Photo: The coast guard released this photo to media of the exhausted refugees receiving aid. (Supplied: Bangladesh Coast Guard)

One refugee told a reporter the group had been turned back from Malaysia twice and a fight had broken out on board between passengers and crew at one point.

Malaysian officials did not respond to requests for comment on reports that it had turned away previous boats from its waters.

"We understand these men, women and children were at sea for nearly two months in harrowing conditions and that many of them are extremely malnourished and dehydrated," the UN refugee agency UNHCR said.

The agency was offering to help the government move them to quarantine facilities and would provide medical care, it said in a statement.

Media reports that the group was infected with coronavirus had not been substantiated, the UNHCR said, adding that the refugees would enter a 14-day quarantine where they would receive medical treatment.

Malaysia turns away another boat

In a separate case, Malaysia's navy intercepted a boat carrying some 200 Rohingya refugees attempting to enter Malaysian waters that same morning.

The boat, which was spotted by an air force surveillance plane, was escorted out of Malaysian waters by two navy ships after being provided with food supplies, the air force said in a statement.

Buddhist-majority Myanmar does not recognise Rohingya as citizens and they face severe curbs on freedom of movement as well as access to healthcare and education.

Myanmar denies persecuting Rohingya and says they are not an indigenous ethnic group but immigrants from South Asia, even though many Rohingya are able to trace their ancestry back centuries.

More than a million live in refugee camps in southern Bangladesh, the majority having been driven from homes in Myanmar after a 2017 military crackdown the army said was a response to attacks by Rohingya insurgents.

In a rare visit to Myanmar's off-limits region, the ABC's Liam Cochrane shakes off police minders to speak with victims of what the UN has described as "ethnic cleansing".

Rights groups fear virus curbs across Southeast Asia could trigger a repeat of a 2015 crisis, when a crackdown by Thailand prompted smugglers to abandon their human cargo at sea on crowded, rickety boats.

Chris Lewa, director of the Arakan Project, said she believed several more boats were stranded.

"Rohingya may encounter closed borders supported by a xenophobic public narrative," Ms Lewa said.

"COVID-19 cannot be used to deny access to territory to desperate refugees in distress. Another maritime crisis in the Andaman Sea, as in 2015, is unacceptable."

Local media reported that up to 28 people died but officials could not confirm it.

Reuters/AP

Topics: human-rights, human-trafficking, refugees, bangladesh