Rohingya Refugees Forced Into Deadly Sea Crossings as Aid Cuts Leave Thousands Desperate

Rohingya refugee Rahila Begum spent two days adrift in the Andaman Sea this month, clinging to a wooden shard after her overcrowded boat capsized, one of the few survivors of a disaster that left 250 missing and feared dead.

She was among the thousands of Rohingya Muslims who brave hunger and accidents on rickety boats each year to flee desperate conditions in camps in southeastern Bangladesh for countries such as Indonesia and Malaysia.

Hundreds die en route from hunger or accidents at sea, but the numbers keep growing as shrinking food rations caused by dwindling international aid push yet more to make the dangerous crossing.

“I never thought I would survive,” said Begum, her voice thready from fever and aches as she sat, wrapped in a blanket, on a thin mat in her parents' shack thrown together from tarpaulin sheets. “It felt like the end of my life.”

The 26-year-old was rescued by a passing Bangladeshi oil tanker after her boat, with nearly 300 aboard, sank this month on its way to Malaysia and later handed to the country's coastguard.

Bangladesh's coastal district of Cox's Bazar is home to nearly 1.2 million Rohingya, many of whom fled persecution and fighting in Buddhist-majority Myanmar, where they are accused of being outsiders.