YANGON, Myanmar — Dozens of people were missing after boats sank off western Myanmar as they were carrying Rohingya refugees initially displaced by sectarian violence and then forced to flee an incoming cyclone, aid groups and the government said Tuesday.
A motorized vessel towing five wooden boats packed with about 100 members of the Rohingya ethnic minority left the coastal town of Pauktaw in Rakhine state late Monday, an official at the Information Ministry said.
It was unclear why the boats left at night in rough seas.
“Only 42 survived,” said the official, who asked to remain anonymous. “The rest are still missing.”
They had planned to land at another refugee camp in Sintetmaw, the official said. The camps are among several temporary shelters set up for 17,000 Rohingya Muslims left homeless last year after clashes with Buddhists, resulting in up to 200 dead and at least 125,000 displaced.
International aid agencies and human rights groups have warned that the overcrowded camps, which lack proper sanitation and health facilities, would be vulnerable to flooding and disease during the rainy season, which starts in June.
The threat has been accelerated by the cyclone, which was expected to hit Rakhine Thursday.
President Thein Sein on Monday ordered authorities in the state to organize evacuations of the most vulnerable Rohingya.
“We are preparing helicopters, vehicles and warships for rescue operations if needed,” said Htein Lynn, secretary of the Rakhine government.
United Nations agencies have expressed satisfaction with the government’s preparations, but some aid agencies expressed worries that not enough has been done.
“The government is working towards our plan in pinpointing the 13 most vulnerable camps from this storm,” said James Munn, spokesman for the U.N. Office for Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs. The office estimated 38,000 Rohingyas would need to be taken to safer ground.
But Jan Lonsdale, country director for the aid group Oxfam, warned that “swifter action is needed to ensure people are moved before the storm hits.”
Myanmar’s former military regime came under international criticism for failing to facilitate emergency aid for the victims of Cyclone Nargis, which struck Myanmar’s Irrawaddy Delta region in 2008, killing up to 140,000 people.
It and the current government, selected in 2010 in Myanmar’s first elections in 20 years, have been faulted for their treatment of the Rohingya, who have been refused citizenship although many have lived in Myanmar for generations. They are instead labeled as recent Bengali immigrants from neighboring Bangladesh.
Meanwhile, authorities in Bangladesh were also making preparations for the approaching storm as nearly 50,000 volunteers in coastal districts were put on alert.
“We have prepared more than 3,500 cyclone shelters in the coastal areas to accommodate vulnerable people,” said Abdul Wazed, director general of the Disaster Management Department.
Authorities in the southeastern coastal district of Cox’s Bazar started stockpiling enough dry food and drinking water for three days, said the district’s chief administrator, Ruhul Amin.
“We have managed to bring back to shore all the fishing boats from the Bay of Bengal,” he said.
