This report was written by Rohingya Khobor using information from the ABC News Australia report “Why more Rohingya are taking deadly boat journeys,” published on July 26, 2026, and reported by Will Jackson. All interviews, quotations and field accounts attributed to Chris Lewa, Hafsar Tameesuddin and UNHCR spokesperson Mariko Hall were originally reported by ABC News. Rohingya Khobor has independently restructured and rewritten the material for its readers.
July 26, 2026
Two boats carrying more than 500 people, most of them Rohingya, have disappeared off the coast of Myanmar, pushing the number of people reported dead or missing at sea in the region this year to more than 800, according to a detailed report published by ABC News Australia.
The latest suspected tragedy has again exposed the conditions forcing Rohingya to undertake dangerous sea journeys: continuing persecution and armed conflict in Rakhine State, growing insecurity and declining humanitarian assistance in the refugee camps in Bangladesh, and the absence of any credible path towards a safe and dignified future.
According to the report, based on information from the UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR), the two boats left Rakhine State in late June. Most of those on board were reportedly Rohingya, including some who had travelled from the refugee camps in Cox’s Bazar.
One boat, believed to have been carrying approximately 250 people, lost contact shortly after leaving. A second boat, carrying an estimated 280 people, is believed to have sunk off the coast of Myanmar’s Ayeyarwady Region on July 8.
At least five bodies were subsequently reported to have washed ashore, although it has not been established whether they were passengers from either vessel. The incidents and the number of casualties have yet to be officially confirmed.
The two disappearances bring the number of people reported lost at sea in the region in 2026 to more than 800, approaching the record total of approximately 900 people reported dead or missing throughout 2025.
UNHCR figures cited by ABC News show that more than one in every seven Rohingya who attempted a maritime journey last year was reported dead or missing. This was the highest mortality rate recorded on any major maritime route used by refugees and migrants worldwide.
Passengers Reportedly Held for Months Before Departure
The boats left during the monsoon season, when torrential rain, strong winds and large waves make the Bay of Bengal and Andaman Sea particularly dangerous. However, information gathered by the Arakan Project suggests that the passengers had not originally intended to travel during this period.
Chris Lewa, founder and director of the Arakan Project, told ABC News that the passengers had gathered to leave in April, within the usual sailing period, but were held by people smugglers for approximately two and a half months in Thameehla village in northern Rakhine State.
It remains unclear why the smugglers delayed the journey before sending the boats out during the monsoon.
“These people, they were not planning to leave in the monsoon season, but they were forced to by the smuggling network,” Lewa told ABC News.
She explained that an overcrowded wooden fishing boat could capsize within seconds if struck by a powerful wave. According to the information available to the Arakan Project, the first vessel sank at night.
There was little confirmed information about the second boat, although fishermen reportedly saw bodies floating at sea.
Rohingya Still Marginalised in Rakhine State
The Rohingya are an ethnic and religious minority indigenous to Rakhine State who have faced generations of persecution in Myanmar. Although evidence of their presence in the region extends back centuries, Myanmar refuses to recognise them as one of the country’s ethnic groups and has portrayed them as illegal migrants from Bangladesh.
Denied citizenship and subjected to severe restrictions, the Rohingya constitute the world’s largest stateless population, according to UNHCR.
In 2017, Myanmar security forces carried out widespread killings, sexual violence and arson attacks that forced more than 750,000 Rohingya to flee to Bangladesh. Myanmar is currently facing a genocide case before the International Court of Justice over its treatment of the Rohingya. Myanmar’s military has maintained that its 2017 campaign was a counterterrorism operation.
The situation in Rakhine State has changed considerably since the military coup of February 2021. The Arakan Army (AA) has seized control of most of the state after driving Myanmar military forces out of large areas. However, the change in territorial control has not brought security or equal rights to the Rohingya.
Lewa told ABC News that continuing conflict, Myanmar military air strikes and the junta’s blockade have caused food and fuel shortages and disrupted telecommunications throughout Rakhine State.
She said both Rakhine and Rohingya civilians had been subjected to conscription by the AA and forced to join labour groups. Despite the AA leadership’s public claims that communities under its rule are treated equally, Rohingya reportedly continue to face marginalisation and discrimination, including restrictions on movement, arbitrary detention and land confiscation.
The AA has denied discriminating against the Rohingya. It has also denied allegations that its forces intentionally targeted Rohingya civilians during military operations against the Myanmar military.
Lewa said conditions differed between areas, with some Rohingya fleeing forced recruitment and persecution under Myanmar military control while others fled conscription under the AA.
“It’s complex,” she said. “It’s difficult for everyone, especially the Rohingya, but not only the Rohingya.”
Insecurity and Hopelessness in the Bangladesh Camps
Conditions are also deteriorating in the refugee camps in Cox’s Bazar, where an estimated 1.2 million Rohingya live within an area of roughly 24 square kilometres. Approximately three-quarters of the camp population are women and children.
According to Lewa, criminal groups involved in drug trafficking, kidnapping and extortion have made the camps increasingly insecure. These groups, she said, are primarily fighting one another for control rather than acting according to any genuine political ideology.
The camps are also highly exposed to fires, floods and landslides. Recent flooding and landslides in the Cox’s Bazar area reportedly killed at least 17 people.
Refugees have few opportunities to work legally, pursue higher education or build independent lives. Humanitarian funding cuts have further reduced access to food and other essential services.
“They feel helpless in the camps in Bangladesh, not being able to work, not being able to do anything, and now affected by aid cuts,” Lewa said.
Many young people see no realistic possibility of employment, marriage, family life or personal development inside the camps. Smuggling networks exploit this absence of a future by promising work and security in countries such as Malaysia and Indonesia.
Thirty Families Reportedly Sharing One Toilet
Hafsar Tameesuddin, a New Zealand-based Rohingya refugee and human rights activist, visited the Cox’s Bazar camps in June. She told ABC News that she witnessed drains filled with waste running between shelters and found that as many as 30 families might be sharing one toilet that was not regularly emptied.
Tameesuddin, who serves as co-secretary general of the Asia Pacific Refugee Rights Network, said malnutrition was widespread. Following cuts in United States humanitarian assistance, monthly food support for refugees had reportedly fallen to between $US7 and $US12 per person.
“It’s nothing,” she said. “People can barely buy rice and chillies.”
Children who have spent much or all of their lives in the camps have limited access to recognised education and little hope of entering meaningful employment. Tameesuddin warned that such conditions leave children and young people vulnerable to recruitment by criminal gangs and armed groups.
During her visit, a five-year-old boy reportedly disappeared. His family paid a ransom, but his body was found one week later. Tameesuddin said incidents of kidnapping occurred frequently and that women and girls were also at risk of being trafficked into sexual exploitation.
She said she was therefore not surprised that people continued boarding boats despite knowing that they might die during the journey.
Some Rohingya women reportedly purchase contraceptive pills before leaving because they anticipate being raped by smugglers during the voyage.
“Any woman, any girl, regardless of what your nationality is, knowing perfectly well that you will get raped on the boat but you’re still choosing to go — that is the explanation of how terrible and deteriorating the situation is in Cox’s Bazar,” Tameesuddin told ABC News.
Her account demonstrates that describing these journeys simply as voluntary “choices” conceals the coercive conditions surrounding them. Rohingya passengers may physically board the boats themselves, but they do so after being denied security, citizenship, mobility, education and viable livelihoods in both Myanmar and Bangladesh.
Calls for Search and Rescue and Regional Protection
Following reports of the two disappearances, UNHCR and the International Organization for Migration called for stronger regional and international action to prevent further deaths on what has become one of the world’s deadliest maritime routes.
The agencies called for improved search-and-rescue operations, access to asylum and international protection, and effective action against human-smuggling and trafficking networks.
UNHCR spokesperson Mariko Hall told ABC News that most Rohingya still wanted to return to Myanmar if they could do so sustainably and in conditions of safety and dignity.
“Desperation and fear for their lives are driving more and more people to attempt these dangerous sea journeys,” she said.
Tameesuddin called on Australia to assume a stronger regional role by increasing humanitarian and development assistance for refugees in Bangladesh, particularly through Rohingya-led community organisations. She also urged Australia to engage at the regional and diplomatic levels to help create the conditions necessary for safe and dignified Rohingya repatriation.
Australia’s Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade was contacted by ABC News but had not provided a response at the time the report was published.
The disappearance of more than 500 people is not merely another maritime accident. It reflects the continuing failure of Myanmar, regional governments and the international community to provide the Rohingya with meaningful protection, rights or a credible future. As those conditions worsen, smugglers will continue to profit from desperation, and more Rohingya will be pushed towards journeys in which exploitation, disappearance and death have become foreseeable outcomes.
