For the Rohingya who found refuge in neighboring countries, “restrictions on movement, livelihoods and education are compelling factors to seek a future elsewhere in the region”.

The motivations are various and often overlapping, it states, including aspirations to reunite with family.

Evermore perilous

Risks have “increased markedly” for those attempting the journey, according to the report, which reveals that of the 2,413 people known to have traveled in 2020, 218 died or went missing at sea.

This means that journeys were eight times deadlier last year than those in 2019.

Earlier on, it was mostly men traveling, but now the majority of passengers are women and children.

Since 2020, the report showed that many refugees have been “marooned for months” on “unseaworthy boats, falling prey to abuses by smugglers, becoming gravely ill through insufficient food and water, and enduring the harsh conditions at sea, including both searing heat as well as treacherous waves and storms”.

These risks have been “prolonged on the occasions where States have ‘pushed back’ boats to prevent disembarkation”.

States called on to act

UNHCR urged all States in the region to search for refugees in distress at sea and rescue them to places of safety.

This must include working towards a regional mechanism for predictable and equitable disembarkation; providing access to asylum procedures for those who disembark; implementing dignified reception arrangements; and providing protection and assistance to refugees who disembark.

Finally, the root causes of refugee maritime movements must be addressed and access to safe legal pathways expanded.

UNHCR Regional Director for Asia and the Pacific Indrika Ratwatte warned that “collective failure to act will have tragic and fatal consequences”.

“We can and must do better”, she stressed.

(Published under an agreement with UN News)