At least 180 ethnic Rohingyas stranded at sea for weeks after leaving Bangladesh in November are feared dead after their rickety boat is believed to have sunk this month, the UN refugee agency (UNHCR) said.
Citing unconfirmed reports, the agency said the unseaworthy boat may have sunk after missing at sea.
“Relatives have lost contact,” UNHCR wrote on Twitter on Saturday. “Whoever was last in touch with seems to have all died.”
More than one million Rohingya refugees from Myanmar live in overcrowded camps in Muslim-majority Bangladesh, including tens of thousands who fled Myanmar after a deadly military crackdown in 2017.