At least 23 Rohingya die after their boat sinks during attempt to flee Myanmar

Boat with over 50 refugees en route Malaysia sinks in Bay of Bengal

At least 23 Rohingyas have died and 30 remain missing after a boat they were fleeing in from Myanmar, capsized in the Bay of Bengal.

Local aid workers said eight people have survived the accident.

The boat with more than 50 people on board had set off for Malaysia, a coveted destination for thousands of Rohingya Muslims fleeing persecution and poverty in Myanmar and Bangladesh.

At least 13 women were among those who died in the incident, BBC Burmese reported.

Survivors of the capsized boat claimed the they were struck by a large wave near Sittwe — the capital of Rakhine state.

"We found dead bodies starting from August 7," said Min Htal Wah, chairperson of Shwe Yaung Metta Foundation, a rescue organisation based in the coastal Rakhine region of Myanmar.

"Within three days, we found 17 dead bodies...We found some people alive," he said.

According to a Rohingya aid worker in Maungdaw township, the boat had departed in bad weather and that about 500 others were still hoping to cross to Malaysia.

Rescuers said they are still trying to find those unaccounted for, although the exact number on board is not known.

Every year, thousands of Rohingya refugees embark on a dangerous journeys in rickety boats to reach Muslim-majority Malaysia, but many have ended up in Indonesia along the way.

Nearly 1 million Muslim Rohingyas fled Buddhist-majority Myanmar amid waves of violence starting in August 2017, when the military launched a “clearance operation” against them following attacks by a rebel group.

A majority of the refugees are in overcrowded camps in Bangladesh.

According to the UN High Commissioner for Refugees, more than 3,500 Rohingya in 39 vessels attempted crossings of the Andaman Sea and the Bay of Bengal in 2022.

At least 348 Rohingya died or went missing at sea last year, the agency added.

The UN refugee agency has called on maritime authorities in the region "to rescue and disembark people in distress have gone unheeded with many boats adrift for weeks", according to AFP.