Overview
- The International Organization for Migration and UNHCR said on Thursday that preliminary reports indicate two overcrowded vessels left Rakhine State in late June and that one is believed to have sunk off the Ayeyarwady coast on July 8.
- The agencies reported more than 500 people may have been aboard the two boats but cautioned that the incidents and casualty figures remain unverified and rescue and recovery efforts are incomplete.
- Travelers made the crossings outside the regular sailing season during heavy rains and flooding, conditions the UN says greatly increase the risk of capsizing on the Bay of Bengal and Andaman Sea routes.
- UN bodies and coverage point to drivers of the departures including escalating conflict in Myanmar, deteriorating conditions and aid cuts in Cox's Bazar camps, and exploitation by smuggling and trafficking networks.
- The UN called for stepped-up regional search-and-rescue, access to asylum and measures to disrupt smugglers, and the possible verification of these losses would add to an already high toll of deaths and disappearances on this route in recent years.