At least 17 dead as boat carrying Rohingya refugees sinks in Bay of Bengal
Al JazeeraAug 02, 2023
The Facts
The death toll of a Rohingya boat that capsized after reportedly being hit by a large wave near Myanmar's Rakhine state capital, Sittwe, has risen to at least 23 people — 13 women and 10 men — with 30 passengers still missing.
A spokesperson for the Shwe Yaung Matta Foundation rescue group stated that eight people have been found alive so far, all of them currently held at a local police station.
The Spin
Pro-establishment narrative
The Rohingya people have desperately risked their lives crossing the ocean for years, trying to find a safe place to live after suffering human rights abuses in Myanmar. This crisis has exposed structural flaws in the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), as its rules made it possible for Myanmar to prevent regional powers from investigating the scale of human rights abuses and taking action to halt them.
Establishment-critical narrative
It's hypocritical to criticize solely ASEAN when Western democracies have done nothing to help the Rohingya — even though the International Court of Justice has long called for measures to protect those persecuted. While this is likely to be a consequence of fears that Myanmar would strengthen ties with Beijing if pressed, not acting to preserve the universal validity of human rights can only damage the West's reputation — the plight of the Rohingya at sea is the world's responsibility.
