Dozens of Rohingya refugees have been found on a beach in Indonesia after weeks at sea in a rickety boat.

At least 180 other Rohingya who left Bangladesh last month are feared to have died at sea, the UN refugee agency said.

Their deaths would make 2022 one of the deadliest years for members of the Muslim minority ethnic group, who face persecution in Myanmar and miserable conditions in Bangladeshi refugee camps.

The “unseaworthy” boat went missing at sea and probably sank, the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) said.

“Relatives have lost contact,” the agency wrote on Twitter on Saturday. “Those last in touch presume all are dead.”

The group of 58 weak and hungry men came ashore in Aceh province on the northwest tip of the Indonesian island of Sumatra on Christmas Day, local people told the authorities.

Their boat landed on Indra Patra beach in Ladong village.

More than one million Rohingya refugees are living in crowded camps in Muslim-majority Bangladesh, including tens of thousands who fled Myanmar after its military began a deadly crackdown in 2017.

In Buddhist-majority Myanmar, most Rohingya Muslims are denied citizenship and seen as illegal immigrants.

Nearly 200 Rohingya were already feared dead or missing at sea so far this year.

Read more:
Plea for help from Rohingya refugees stranded at sea
More than 100 refugees found on beach after month at sea

2013 is thought to be the deadliest year on record for Rohingya refugees.

That year, 900 Rohingya died or went missing in the Andaman Sea and the Bay of Bengal, between Myanmar, Bangladesh, India and Sri Lanka.

In 2014 an estimated 700 people were dead or missing.

The numbers of Rohingya who have left Bangladesh in boats has increased five-fold in the past year, rights groups have estimated.

Last year the military took control of Myanmar in a deadly coup that forced hundreds of thousands to flee.

Security forces in Myanmar have been accused of mass rapes and killings of Rohingya people and the burning of thousands of their homes.

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