More than a dozen people, mostly children, drowned in the latest incident of a capsized boat off Bangladesh Thursday. Many are missing.
These are Rohingya, fleeing to Bangladesh from Rakhine state in Myanmar where they face violent persecution. The United Nations says the number of people trying to escape violence has breached 500,000.
According to witnesses, the boat containing about 100 people was near the shore when it capsized. They could see it approaching—but the waters were rough and rain and winds lashed at the frigate. After a while, bodies began washing ashore.
International organizations deplore the fact that women and children—the most vulnerable segments of the population—comprise the bulk of those fleeing the violence at home. The military in Myanmar has been cracking down on the Rohingya whom they do not count as belonging to their people. Murders and burning of villages have been reported.
Bangladesh, facing woes of its own, struggles with the influx of refugees. It tries to provide basic necessities to the refugees through its government and international organizations, but it has its own constraints.
The conflict has been there since 2012 but this August humanitarian organizations were forced to pull out because of heightened military operation in the Northern Myanmar state.
Meanwhile, we can only look on.
There has not been any adequate pressure on the military to stop the violence. Myanmar is home to Nobel Peace Prize laureate Aung San Suu Kyi, but now, as a major figure in government, her hands appear tied. She spoke about the crisis for the first time last week but her statements were full of half-truths and falsehoods, according to media organizations that conducted a fact check on her words.
Perhaps she genuinely believes what she is saying, or she knows the stakes are just too high. After all much change has taken place in her country over the past few years.
Myanmar’s Asean neighbors, including the Philippines, are also not inclined to bring up the awkward topic.
Meanwhile, people are dying staying, or dying fleeing. It is perhaps symbolic that this latest capsizing incident happened while the people on the boat were actually so near land. We wonder how much longer the people have to suffer, or how much longer the world can train its attention on them before thinking nothing of what is happening simply because we’ve gotten used to it.