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More Than 500 Feared Dead After Reported Shipwrecks Off Myanmar’s Coast, UN Says

The reports come on top of the 300 people already reported missing or drowned in the Andaman Sea and Bay of Bengal in 2026.

Clouds over the Andaman Sea, Nov. 21, 2017.

More than 500 people are feared dead following reports of two large shipwrecks off the coast of Myanmar since late last month, the United Nations said yesterday.

The International Organization for Migration (IOM) and the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) said that based on “preliminary information,” the two vessels departed from Myanmar’s Rakhine State in late June. They were carrying mostly Rohingya passengers, “reportedly including some who had travelled from refugee camps in Cox’s Bazar, Bangladesh.”

One boat, believed to have been carrying around 250 people, “lost contact shortly after departure,” while a second vessel reportedly carrying some 280 people, “is believed to have sunk off Myanmar’s Ayeyarwady coast on 8 July.”

If verified, the tragedies would add to the nearly 300 people reported to be missing or to have lost their lives in the Andaman Sea and Bay of Bengal so far in 2026, they added. This includes both Rohingya refugees and Bangladeshi nationals.

“While the incidents and casualty figures have yet to be officially confirmed, UNHCR and IOM are gravely concerned by the potentially devastating loss of life,” the agencies said.

Over-ladened vessels have been setting off from Bangladesh and Rakhine State in Myanmar for more than a decade, but have increased markedly since 2017, when an ethnic cleansing campaign by the Myanmar military drove around 740,000 Rohingya civilians from Rakhine State into Bangladesh. Most are seeking sanctuary in other parts of Southeast Asia, particularly in Muslim-majority Malaysia and Indonesia, despite facing an increasingly hostile reception in both nations.

The boats used in such journeys are often ill-suited to the high seas and filled well over capacity. More than 6,500 Rohingya undertook ocean voyages in 2025, and nearly 900 were reported dead or missing, the UNHCR said in April, making last year “the deadliest year on record” for Rohingya sea crossings.

The IOM/UNHCR statement noted that the recent boat journeys took place during the monsoon season, when maritime conditions are even more hazardous. In particular, recent torrential rain and flooding across the region would have significantly increased the risks.

The fact that there is apparently no shortage of people willing to take this chance is a sign of the increasingly desperate conditions in the refugee camps of southeastern Bangladesh, which are home to nearly 1 million people.

Crime is now rampant in the camps, and........

© The Diplomat