More than 500 feared dead after boats sink off Myanmar coast: UN
The UN's International Organization for Migration (IOM) and its refugee agency UNHCR voiced alarm in a joint statement at reports "that two boats carrying more than 500 people may have capsized off the coast of Myanmar in recent days."
One boat, believed to have been carrying around 250 people, lost contact shortly after departure.
The Rohingya are a stateless Muslim ethnic minority group from Myanmar’s Rakhine state, who have faced decades of state-sponsored persecution, violence and what the US has classified as genocide.
Rohingya undertake perilous sea journeys every year in search of better living conditions, travelling aboard rickety boats often operated by trafficking networks.
