• A boat is suspected to be carrying hundreds of Rohingya refugees.
• Leaders ask regional nations to promptly launch a search and rescue effort.
• The boat had drifted from the Malacca Strait into Indian waters off the Andaman and Nicobar Islands.

Southeast Asian leaders have asked regional nations to promptly launch a search and rescue effort for a boat suspected to be carrying hundreds of Rohingya refugees.

The ASEAN Parliamentarians for Human Rights (APHR) appealed on Tuesday after Indian media reported the boat had drifted from the Malacca Strait into Indian waters off the Andaman and Nicobar Islands.

The Quint news website quoted satellite coordinates the boat’s captain gave to a Rohingya refugee in Cox’s Bazar on Sunday.

Rezuwan’s sister and 5-year-old niece are also on the boat.

At least three passengers on the boat had died from malnutrition and dehydration, Rezuwan said.

“It’s worrisome.” He said they need water and nourishment.

The UN refugee agency asked for an urgent search and rescue effort for Rohingya refugees in December. The UN said the “unseaworthy” boat could transport 200 people, but Indian media reported 160.

In a statement released Tuesday, Southeast Asian lawmakers urged ASEAN and other countries in the region to rescue the boat’s passengers.

Eva Sundari, APHR board member, said it’s disgraceful a boat full of men, women, and children were left adrift.

She claimed to neglect the boat’s passengers was an affront to humanity.

The boat reportedly set off from Bangladesh in late November to reach Malaysia, where hundreds of thousands of Rohingya refugees escaped persecution in Myanmar.

The vessel’s engines failed on December 1, and it is one of the numerous refugee boats reported adrift in recent weeks.

A Vietnamese oil service vessel rescued 154 Rohingya refugees off Thailand on December 8. Myanmar’s navy received the refugees.

Sri Lanka’s navy rescued 104 refugees, including 39 women and 23 children, on Sunday. The navy claimed the small boat left Myanmar for Indonesia when its engine broke.

The UN refugee agency reported earlier this month a “dramatic” surge of Rohingya migrants making perilous boat crossings from Myanmar and Bangladesh to Southeast Asian countries, partially due to deteriorating conditions in their refugee camps in Myanmar’s Rakhine state and Bangladesh’s Cox’s Bazar.

According to the UN, 1,920 primarily Rohingya migrants evacuated Myanmar and Bangladesh by sea between January and November.

UN: 119 died or missing on these voyages.

The APHR said Tuesday that Southeast Asian states must address the fundamental cause of the crisis, including increasing pressure on Myanmar to restore citizenship to the Rohingya and repatriate roughly one million refugees in Bangladesh.

Kasit Piromya, APHR board member and former Thai foreign minister, said ASEAN and the world community watched idly by as the Rohingya catastrophe developed.

“Countries that claim to defend human rights have a moral obligation to address the core causes of the Rohingya human rights issue.”

Please listen to the voices of the 160 Rohingya people stranded at Andaman for over 3 weeks! @Refugees @UNHCRAsia @amnesty @AJEnglish @IndianExpress @UNHumanRights @UNHCR_BGD @POTUS @SecBlinken @trtworld @CNN @OIC_OCI @RefugeesIntl @MEAIndia @arielmou @indiannavy @narendramodi pic.twitter.com/DMQyapv3tO

— MohammedkhanRezuwan (@Khan_RZW) December 18, 2022

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