Arakan News Agency
Rohingya sources said two boats carrying 140 Rohingyas were stranded on their way to Malaysia after leaving Sittwe (Akyab), capital of Arakan state, on March 24.
According to the Rohingya blogger, the two missing boats were traveling with another boat carrying 56 Rohingya people which arrived on the coast of Malaysia on March 31st and were rescued by the Malaysian navy and subsequently handed over to the Immigration Department.
The other two boats were lost at sea.
Relatives of people on board the missing boats are anxious that the boat had sank, noting that most of the passengers were women and children.
According to the newspaper, more Rohingya refugees are likely to leave Arakan in the coming weeks because of the policy of starvation and crackdown by the Myanmar authorities.
The Rohingyas top choice is often Malaysia because they are predominantly Muslim country and also because the Rohingya population that arrived before are somewhat stable in Malaysia, often pay the boat fare to brokers for their relatives in Arakan.
The sources point out that each person who leaves for Malaysia pays 700,000 kyats to the agents, and the agents have to pay bribes to the Myanmar police or security forces in Sittwe estimated at 10 million kyats per boat, where each boat accommodates about 100 people aboard.
