At least 17 people were killed when a boat carrying Rohingya migrants sank off the coast of Myanmar while they were trying to flee the country.

Relief Organizations reported, in a statement today, that more than fifty people from Sittwe village in Rakhine State sailed by boat towards Malaysia, but their journey faced difficult conditions in a rough sea, which caused the boat to sink, adding that it rescued eight men alive and recovered them. 17 bodies drowned, while about 30 others were considered missing.

They explained that they continue to search for the missing, although the exact number of passengers is not known, while the police took the survivors for questioning.

Rakhine State in Myanmar is home to about 600,000 Muslims from the Rohingya minority, whom the Nepyidaw authorities consider irregular immigrants from Bangladesh, even though they have lived in the state for generations, suffering discrimination and deprivation of citizenship, travel, health care and education.

Every year, thousands of Rohingya embark on perilous sea journeys from the camps of Bangladesh and Myanmar in an effort to reach Malaysia and Indonesia, especially after the Myanmar army launched a bloody campaign of repression in 2017 against the minority, forcing about 750,000 of them to flee the country and seek refuge in Bangladesh, in a process that was condemned. Several countries and international organizations, led by the United Nations, considered what the people were subjected to as "genocide"./ End

Source: National Iraqi News Agency