2 boats sink off Myanmar coast in Bay: 530 Rohingya dead

At least 530 Rohingya have drowned after two boats capsized off the Myanmar coast in the Bay of Bengal, the UN migration agency IOM and the refugee agency UNHCR confirmed in a statement on Thursday.

The statement said that the two boats set off from the Bay of Bengal coast in Rakhine State, bordering Bangladesh, in late June. One boat was carrying 250 people and the other 260. The passengers included Rohingya from Myanmar as well as several Rohingya men and women who had taken refuge in a refugee camp in Teknaf, Cox's Bazar district, Bangladesh.

The two boats sank on July 8, about two weeks after setting off in late June. The IOM and UNHCR said in a statement that the boats lost contact after reaching the Irrawaddy River and that the first boat carrying 250 people sank. The second boat sank shortly after.

It is not yet known for certain which destination the two boats were heading for from Rakhine. However, it is believed that the boats were intended to reach one of these three countries - Malaysia, Indonesia or Thailand. Because the route the two boats took ended in these three countries.

There is no information that any passengers have returned alive from the two sunken boats.

The statement further said, "The period of shipping and navigation in the Bay of Bengal is from November to March - these are 5 months. The remaining 7 months are closed due to adverse weather conditions and rough seas. These unfortunate Rohingyas set sail at a time when the sea was extremely rough."

The statement further said, "The period of shipping and navigation in the Bay of Bengal is from November to March - these are 5 months. The remaining 7 months are closed due to adverse weather conditions and rough seas. These unfortunate Rohingyas set sail at a time when the sea was extremely rough."

When the Myanmar military launched a campaign against the Rohingya in Rakhine in 2017, they began crossing the border into Bangladesh in droves. Currently, at least 800,000 Rohingya are living in Rohingya camps in Teknaf, Bangladesh.

The Bangladeshi government has allowed them to reside but not granted citizenship, leading to a growing trend among them to cross the Bay of Bengal to Malaysia, Indonesia, or Thailand.

According to UNHCR data, more than 6,500 Rohingyas crossed the Bay of Bengal from January to December 2025, and nearly 900 of them were buried alive.