2020 was ‘deadliest’ year ever for Rohingya sea journeys: UNHCR

Refugee agency says Andaman Sea crossing was eight times more deadly than in 2019 as borders were closed.

The UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR) says that 2020 was the deadliest year on record for refugees crossing the Bay of Bengal and Andaman Sea, the favoured sea route for Rohingya attempting to reach Southeast Asia from the sprawling refugee camps in Bangladesh. Of the 2,413 people known to have travelled in 2020, 218 died or went missing at sea, the UNHCR said in a new report: Left Adrift at Sea: Dangerous Journeys of Refugees Across the Bay of Bengal and Andaman Sea, which was released on Thursday.  That made an already dangerous journey eight times more deadly than in 2019. The agency noted that many countries in Southeast Asia tightened their borders as part of their response to the coronavirus pandemic, leaving many refugees stranded at sea. That number was the highest since the region’s “boat crisis” of 2015.