A boat carrying Rohingya migrants from Myanmar sank near the Thai-Malaysian border, resulting in hundreds of people missing, seven confirmed deaths, and only 13 rescued. The incident was reported by the Malaysian maritime agency on Sunday.
The boat, believed to have carried 300 people, had departed from Myanmar's Rakhine state three days prior to the sinking. The Malaysian maritime agency's head for the area, Romli Mustafa, confirmed that rescuers were combing a large area of 170 square nautical miles near Langkawi island on Saturday.
Kedah province police chief Adzli Abu Shah revealed the migrants initially boarded a large vessel from Myanmar but were instructed to transfer onto three smaller boats, each carrying about 100 people, to evade detection near Malaysia.
The sinking involved one of these three smaller vessels. The status of the other two boats was unknown, and a search-and-rescue operation was ongoing. The Rohingya, a Muslim minority community, face years of conflict, hunger, and ethnic violence in Myanmar's impoverished Rakhine state.
Following a brutal military crackdown in 2017, approximately 1.3 million Rohingya live as refugees in densely-packed camps in neighboring Bangladesh.
Facing violence in Myanmar and increasingly difficult conditions in Bangladesh, Rohingya regularly attempt perilous sea journeys, often targeting Malaysia.
According to the UN Refugee Agency, more than 5,100 Rohingya took boats to leave Myanmar and Bangladesh between January and early November this year, with nearly 600 people reported dead or missing in the period.
