Rohingya refugees face deadly sea crossings as trafficking grows

Rohingya refugees in Bangladesh are continuing to risk dangerous sea journeys as human trafficking networks expand and conditions in the camps around Cox's Bazar remain difficult.

Rahela Begum, a 25-year-old Rohingya woman, boarded a boat for Malaysia in April. She had fled war in Myanmar and was living in the large refugee camp area in Bangladesh before joining a growing number of refugees trying to reach Malaysia, Indonesia or Thailand by sea.

Begum said the overcrowded vessel carrying about 280 people sank after four days of travel. She said she spent two days and one night adrift in the Andaman Sea off Bangladesh, holding on to a wooden plank, before attracting the attention of a rescue ship.

More than a million Rohingya who fled Myanmar's Rakhine state live in poor conditions in Cox's Bazar. Bangladesh bars most refugees from leaving the camps or working. Begum said those restrictions left her with little choice but to try to leave by sea.

She said a trafficker took her to Teknaf, about an hour from Cox's Bazar, after promising to treat her well. She boarded a crowded trawler on April 4. When news of the sinking emerged a week later, the Bangladesh Coast Guard said nine people had been found alive, including six traffickers.

The United Nations refugee agency, UNHCR, said nearly 900 Rohingya were reported dead or missing at sea in 2025, the deadliest year on record. It said more than 6,500 Rohingya tried to leave the camps by sea that year, with one in seven reported dead or missing. UNHCR representative Astrid Castelein said the agency recorded 2,300 departures from the camps between January and May this year, compared with 1,180 in the same period last year.

A trafficker, speaking anonymously, said networks include people in the camps and individuals from Teknaf, Myanmar, Thailand and Malaysia. He said journeys often start in Teknaf, where migrants are put on trawlers and later transferred to larger vessels at sea. He said he could earn up to 250,000 taka, or about $2,000, for each shipment, and said he did not consider the work a crime.

Bangladesh authorities say they are trying to contain the trafficking. Coast Guard Lieutenant Mohammad Rawnak Rahman, who patrols near the Naf River at the Bangladesh-Myanmar border, said the coast guard was on maximum alert and had rescued 618 trafficking victims this year.

At the Cox's Bazar courthouse, prosecutor Tawhidul Anwar said authorities were handling about 500 human trafficking cases. He said investigators struggle to obtain evidence and that traffickers are powerful. He said traffickers arrested after the April shipwreck were released on bail, though they faced possible life sentences.

Local police superintendent ANM Sajedur Rahman said authorities do not have the resources needed to dismantle trafficking networks. He said the central problem is that Rohingya refugees want to leave at any cost.

Sayed Ullah, president of the United Rohingya Council, said refugees are trying to survive on two meals a day and 16 taka, or about $0.13. He said people should not be surprised that refugees try to leave in search of something better, and said the only solution was lasting peace in Myanmar.

Bangladesh authorities have said easing restrictions on refugees is difficult because the country's resources are already stretched. Across the border, fighting that followed Myanmar's 2021 military coup continues. The US-based NGO Acled says more than 100,000 people have died in the fighting.