COX’S BAZAAR: Bangladesh coastguards on Thursday found the bodies of 17 Rohingya Muslims, many of them children, who drowned when their boats capsized as they fled violence in Myanmar that has forced at least 18,500 to seek refuge across the border.

Officials in Bangladesh said growing numbers of Rohingya are trying to cross the Naf river that divides the two countries in rickety boats ill-equipped for the rough waters as they become increasingly desperate to escape.

The International Organisation for Migration said that at least 18,500 Rohingya had crossed into Bangladesh since fighting erupted in Myanmar’s neighbouring Rakhine state six days earlier.

One coastguard official who asked not to be named said the migrants were travelling on “rickety inland fishing boats” unsuitable for the choppy seas around Bangladesh.

On Wednesday, the bodies of two Rohingya women and two children washed up in Bangladesh after their boat capsized.

Officials said two more boats capsized on Thursday, killing at least 17 people, many of them children.

Photographs from the scene showed the bodies of several small children lined up on the ground, covered with sheets.

One survivor said the small, overcrowded boat he was travelling on had been tipped over by huge waves near where the Naf river opens out into the sea.

“Nobody knew how to navigate the sea waters. When huge waves tilted the boat, we panicked,” said Shah Karim.

The Naf river that divides the two countries is narrow in places, but the Rohingya are increasingly crossing where the river is wider, or even venturing out to sea, after Bangladeshi authorities intensified border patrols.

Bangladesh is already home to an estimated 400,000 Rohingya, a mainly Muslim stateless minority that rights groups say has long faced persecution in Myanmar.

Most live in squalid and increasingly overcrowded camps in the coastal area of Cox’s Bazar, and Dhaka has made clear it does not want more to come in.

On Wednesday Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina asked the United States to put pressure on Myanmar to stem the flow. “We have given shelter to a huge number of Rohingya refugees in Bangladesh on humanitarian grounds and it’s a big problem for us,” she said, according to the state-run BSS news agency.

The latest clashes in Myanmar began last week when Rohingya militants staged deadly attacks on police posts.

Published in Dawn, September 1st, 2017