The world’s deadliest sea route keeps getting busier

Abdul Nur last heard from his son Jani Alom in early June, weeks before the 15-year-old boy was forced onto a boat embarking on one of the world’s most dangerous sea crossings.

“Oh ba ,” a teary and panicked Alom said over the phone, his father recounted to CNN. Alom used the word for “father” in Rohingya, the language spoken by the ethnic group of the same name.

“I am going to be put on a boat to Malaysia.”

The boy had been abducted one evening two months earlier while walking home from school in the Bangladeshi refugee camp where the family has lived for nearly a decade, alongside more than one million other Rohingya exiled from western Myanmar.

The Rohingya are a stateless Muslim minority from Myanmar’s Rakhine state, who have faced decades of state-sponsored persecution, violence and what the US has classified as genocide.

Each year, thousands of Rohingya refugees, many of them women and children, pack into the crammed cargo holds of old fishing trawlers departing from Bangladesh or Myanmar to cross rough, open waters in the Bay of Bengal and the Andaman Sea in search of safety or opportunity in Indonesia or Malaysia.

These crossings have taken place for more than a decade but have sharply increased in recent years amid a bloody civil war in Myanmar and deteriorating conditions in the Cox’s Bazar camps, fueling a lucrative market for smugglers who facilitate these risky journeys.

Before Alom made that final call to his father, Nur had collected donations from relatives and neighbors in the camp in Cox’s Bazar to pay the roughly $2,800 in ransom his abductors demanded.

But his son never came home.

Nur now believes Alom was among more than 500 people aboard two boats which vanished off the coast of Myanmar in July – the latest victims of a perilous maritime route where, according to UN figures, roughly one in seven people who attempt the trip do not make it.

It’s a route which keeps getting busier.

Last year, nearly 900 Rohingya refugees were reported missing or dead in the Andaman Sea and Bay of Bengal out of roughly 6,500 who attempted the crossing, which has “the highest mortality rate worldwide of any route for refugee and migrant sea journeys,” according to the UN Refugee Agency.

In the first half of this year, 820 people have been reported dead or missing at sea, almost twice as many people as during the same period last year. Roughly 5,700 people have attempted the journey as of the end of June — close to the total for all of 2025.

However, the numbers are only estimates because many journeys go unseen and ships sink quietly without survivors.

While many go willingly, a rising number of people are being trafficked onto these ships, where abuse, exploitation and disease are rampant, according to advocates and interviews with refugee families.

There has been a “significant increase in abductions” in the Cox’s Bazar refugee camp, with gangs extorting the relatives of abductees for ransom, said Chris Lewa, director of the Arakan Project, a Rohingya advocacy group.

While not everyone who is kidnapped is put on a boat, she said the growth in the maritime smuggling industry has created demand for more passengers to take these risky journeys, leading to some people being trafficked.

Nur said in that final call, an unknown man who he fears was a trafficker took the phone from Alom and said, “Your son has been sold here and will be sent to Malaysia.”

He and his family came to Cox’s Bazar in search of safety in 2017, having escaped their village in the middle of the night and traveled for seven days on foot to reach Bangladesh, Nur said.

But now he is overwhelmed with grief over the disappearance of his son, a quiet and respectful seventh-grader who loved to play football with his friends.

“Every corner of our shelter reminds me of him,” Nur, 55, told CNN from his home in the refugee camp, showing the small table where his son used to study.

Several camps over from Nur’s tent, through muddy paths dotted with plastic structures, another family sits in similar anguish.

Hamid Ullah, 20, a teacher at the local high school, was taken from the camp at the beginning of May, his family told CNN. While they begged for money to pay an initial $1,200 ransom for Ullah’s release, they were unable to raise a further $3,200 traffickers demanded later.

Ullah’s mother, Bibi Jan, said when she finally spoke to her son, he told her he was being forced onto a boat bound for Malaysia.

“I asked him, “My son, will you come back? The sea is so dangerous. You could die,’” she said.

The family has not received any information about Ullah since. When they later heard of the boats that disappeared, the family was stricken with grief.

“Sometimes I hold and smell his shirt because it reminds me of him,” Jan said.

The boats which recently vanished set sail from Myanmar in late June, according to a UN statement issued in mid-July. One of the ships, carrying about 250 people, lost contact shortly after departure. Another, with about 280 passengers, is believed to have sunk roughly a week later off the country’s central coast.

Unlike most crossings, which take place between November and April, these ships departed during monsoon season, when the seas are prone to unpredictable storms and high swells.

The passengers were mostly Rohingya people, including some who had traveled from the Cox’s Bazar camp, according to the UN.

A communications blackout in Myanmar and a lack of survivors makes it difficult to get firsthand information about the ships, said Lewa.

Based on discussions with her contacts, which are consistent with CNN’s interviews with victims’ families, Lewa said the passengers were taken from Bangladesh and northern Rakhine state to the village of Tha Mee Hla, along Myanmar’s Mayu River, where they waited until the boat was ready depart from the coastal village of Sin Tet Maw.

The two boats departed on June 29, Lewa said. They were meant to leave earlier but were delayed due to the security situation in the war-torn state, which is violently controlled by the Arakan Army, one of the rebel groups fighting the junta.

Despite the risks of sailing during monsoon season, Lewa said, she believes there was pressure from the smugglers on the boat operators to depart anyway.

The first boat departed in the morning and capsized within just 12 hours, Lewa said.

The bodies of approximately 10 Rohingya people who were believed to have been passengers on this boat were reportedly found along the coastline of northern Rakhine, according to various reports.

Police in Bangladesh said they recovered five bodies along the southern coast in the first two weeks of July, which they said could be linked to the migrant boats, local media reported.

The second boat, which left in the evening, sailed for about nine days and capsized on July 8 in the Andaman Sea, off the Ayeyarwady coast, according to Lewa and the UN statement.

Lewa said she had received reports that fishermen in Ayeyarwady and Mon state, which lies further south along the coast, found several dead bodies in the ocean.

The second boat may have been close to its destination in southern Myanmar, Lewa said; from there, the refugees would have likely crossed into Malaysia via Thailand through the forest.

The double shipwreck comes after another migrant boat which left from southern Bangladesh sank in mid-April, leaving 250 people missing. Miraculously, nine people were rescued from the ocean.

One survivor told Reuters news agency the passengers were packed into storage compartments meant for fish and nets, causing at least 30 people to suffocate to death before the boat capsized.

Munir Uz Zaman/AFP/Getty Images

The rising toll of people lost at sea at least partly reflects the grim conditions in Cox’s Bazar, a place that was meant to be a refuge but where rampant crime and violence, scarce resources and a lack of opportunities have made many desperate to flee – even at great risk.

“They don’t see any solution for their future,” Lewa said. “So they take a chance.”

Refugees are legally restricted from working or studying outside the camps, leaving them heavily reliant on international humanitarian assistance for basic needs like food . Much of this help had been coming through USAID until it was sharply slashed last year.

In June the UN, in coordination with the Bangladesh government, appealed to the international community for $710.5 million to meet “the most urgent needs of Rohingya refugees and local host communities” – a “hyper-prioritized” number despite growing needs.

Torrential rains and landslides frequently hit the hilly and densely populated camps, killing and displacing residents and leaving streets waterlogged for months of the year.

Munir Uz ZamanAFP/Getty Images

Md shamim Ul islam/SIPAPRE/Sipa USA/AP

Refugees are abducted almost every day by armed groups operating inside the camp, who kidnap people — including young children — and extort their families for money, according to reports from within the camp.

Just a handful of Rohingya have been resettled in third countries like the US, and voluntary, safe repatriation to conflict-ridden Myanmar remains out of reach.

“The future outlook is pretty bleak,” said Shahariar Sadat, executive director of the Centre for Peace and Justice at BRAC University in Dhaka, Bangladesh.

Sadat, who oversees a research unit in Cox’s Bazar, said he’s seen firsthand the effects of overcrowding and international aid cuts on the camps, through increased crime, as well as diminished education, health care, and basic services such as food and clean water.

Recently the World Food Programme cut its monthly food assistance for all refugees, giving $7 to “food insecure” households and $10 to “highly food insecure” ones while reserving the previous handout of $12 for only those marked as “extremely food insecure.”

Sadat said people are often lured onto the ships by the false promise of financial stability at the other end.

Refugees who reach Malaysia and Indonesia face increasingly hostile receptions and are largely banned from working; neither country is a signatory to the UN Refugee Convention.

Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim said last month his government had struck a deal with Myanmar to take back roughly 5,000 Rohingya asylum seekers currently living in Malaysia.

Shab Mia boarded the boat in the hope that he could earn enough in Malaysia to provide a better life for his 6-month-old daughter.

Back at the refugee camp, his only work was carrying goods for shopkeepers and transporting relief supplies for other refugees, his wife Rubina Akther told CNN, cradling their baby inside the family’s shelter. On a good day, he’d earn the equivalent of about $1 or $1.50, she said, but many days he earned nothing at all.

Mia left the refugee camp in June to return to Rakhine state, the home he had escaped years earlier. He called Akther on June 23, days before the boats left, and asked her to take good care of their daughter.

She hasn’t heard from him since.

“Every night, my daughter falls asleep without her father beside her,” Akther said.

“She is too young to understand why he never came back, but one day she will ask me where her father is. I don’t know how I will answer her because I am still waiting for him myself. Until I know the truth, I cannot stop hoping, and I cannot stop crying.”

Like Akthur, Nur can’t help but hold onto hope that his son may still be out there.

“Every day we wait and pray that he is still alive.”

阿卜杜勒·努尔最后一次听到儿子贾尼·阿洛姆的消息是在六月初，几周后，这位 15 岁的男孩被迫登上了一艘船，开始了世界上最危险的海上航行之一。

据CNN报道，阿洛姆的父亲回忆说，阿洛姆在电话里哭着惊慌失措地说：“哦，爸爸。”阿洛姆用的是罗兴亚语中“父亲”的意思，罗兴亚语是罗兴亚族使用的语言。

“我将被送上一艘去马来西亚的船。”

两个月前的一个晚上，这名男孩在孟加拉国难民营放学回家途中被绑架。他的家人和一百多万其他从缅甸西部流亡的罗兴亚人一起，在这个难民营里生活了近十年。

罗兴亚人是缅甸若开邦的一个无国籍穆斯林少数群体，他们几十年来一直遭受国家支持的迫害、暴力以及美国认定的种族灭绝。

每年，成千上万的罗兴亚难民，其中许多是妇女和儿童，挤进从孟加拉国或缅甸出发的旧渔船拥挤的货舱，穿越孟加拉湾和安达曼海的汹涌海域，前往印度尼西亚或马来西亚寻求安全或机会。

这些偷渡行为已经持续了十多年，但近年来随着缅甸血腥内战和科克斯巴扎尔难民营状况的恶化，偷渡行为急剧增加，这为走私者提供了有利可图的市场，他们为这些危险的旅程提供便利。

在阿洛姆给父亲打最后一个电话之前，努尔已经从科克斯巴扎尔难民营的亲戚和邻居那里筹集了捐款，以支付绑匪索要的约 2800 美元赎金。

但他的儿子再也没有回家。

努尔现在认为，阿洛姆是7月份在缅甸海岸附近失踪的两艘船上的500多人之一——他们是这条危险海上航线的最新受害者，根据联合国的数据，大约七分之一的尝试这条航线的人无法到达目的地。

这条路线的客流量越来越大。

去年，约有 6500 名罗兴亚难民试图穿越安达曼海和孟加拉湾，其中近 900 人失踪或死亡。联合国难民署表示，这条路线是“全球难民和移民海上旅程死亡率最高的路线”。

今年上半年，已有820人在海上死亡或失踪，几乎是去年同期人数的两倍。截至6月底，约有5700人尝试横渡大西洋——接近2025年全年的总人数。

然而，这些数字只是估计值，因为许多航程无人知晓，船只悄无声息地沉没，没有幸存者。

虽然许多人是自愿前往，但越来越多的人被贩运到这些船上，据倡导者和对难民家庭的采访显示，船上虐待、剥削和疾病十分猖獗。

罗兴亚人权益倡导组织阿拉干项目主任克里斯·莱瓦表示，科克斯巴扎尔难民营的绑架事件“显著增加”，一些团伙向被绑架者的亲属勒索赎金。

她表示，虽然并非所有被绑架的人都会被送上船，但海上走私行业的增长催生了对更多乘客进行这些危险旅程的需求，导致一些人被贩卖。

努尔说，在最后一次通话中，一个身份不明的男子（他怀疑是人贩子）从阿洛姆手中抢过电话，说：“你的儿子在这里被卖掉了，将被送往马来西亚。”

努尔说，他和家人于 2017 年来到科克斯巴扎尔寻求安全，他们在半夜逃离了村庄，徒步走了七天到达孟加拉国。

但现在，他因儿子的失踪而悲痛欲绝。他的儿子是一个安静、懂事的七年级学生，喜欢和朋友们一起踢足球。

“我们住所的每个角落都让我想起他，”55 岁的努尔在难民营的家中告诉 CNN，并指着他儿子以前学习的小桌子。

从努尔的帐篷往外走几个营地，穿过点缀着塑料结构的泥泞小路，另一家人也同样痛苦地坐着。

据CNN报道，20岁的哈米德·乌拉是当地一所高中的教师，5月初被从难民营带走。他的家人告诉CNN，他们曾四处筹款，试图支付1200美元的赎金以换取乌拉的获释，但后来人贩子又索要了3200美元，他们无力支付。

乌拉的母亲比比·简说，当她终于和儿子通话时，儿子告诉她，他被迫登上了一艘开往马来西亚的船。

“我问他，‘我的儿子，你会回来吗？大海太危险了。你会死的，’”她说。

此后，家人再也没有收到乌拉的任何消息。后来，当他们听说那些失踪的船只时，全家人都悲痛欲绝。

“有时候我会拿着他的衬衫闻一闻，因为它让我想起他，”简说道。

根据联合国7月中旬发布的一份声明，近日失踪的船只于6月下旬从缅甸启航。其中一艘载有约250人的船只在启航后不久便失去联系。另一艘载有约280名乘客的船只据信在大约一周后于缅甸中部沿海沉没。

与大多数在 11 月至 4 月之间进行的航行不同，这些船只在季风季节出发，此时海面容易出现难以预测的风暴和巨浪。

据联合国称，乘客大多是罗兴亚人，其中一些人是从科克斯巴扎尔难民营来的。

莱瓦说，缅甸的通讯中断以及幸存者的缺乏，使得获取有关船只的第一手信息变得困难。

根据她与联系人的讨论（这与 CNN 对受害者家属的采访一致），莱瓦表示，乘客们从孟加拉国和若开邦北部被带到缅甸马尤河沿岸的塔米拉村，在那里等待船只从沿海村庄辛特莫出发。

莱瓦说，这两艘船于6月29日启航。它们原本应该更早出发，但由于饱受战火蹂躏的若开邦安全局势动荡而延误。该邦目前由与军政府作战的反叛组织之一——若开军——暴力控制。

莱瓦表示，尽管在季风季节航行存在风险，但她认为走私者向船主施加了压力，迫使他们无论如何都要出发。

莱瓦说，第一艘船早上出发，仅仅12个小时后就倾覆了。

据多方报道，约有 10 名罗兴亚人的遗体在若开邦北部海岸线附近被发现，他们据信是这艘船上的乘客。

据当地媒体报道，孟加拉国警方称，他们在7月的前两周在南部海岸发现了5具尸体，他们表示这些尸体可能与移民船有关。

据莱瓦和联合国声明称，第二艘船于当晚出发，航行了大约九天后，于 7 月 8 日在安达曼海伊洛瓦底海岸附近倾覆。

莱瓦说，她收到报告称，伊洛瓦底省和位于更南边沿海的孟邦的渔民在海里发现了多具尸体。

莱瓦说，第二艘船可能已经接近缅甸南部的目的地；从那里，难民们很可能会经由泰国穿过森林进入马来西亚。

此次双重沉船事故发生之前，另一艘从孟加拉国南部出发的移民船于四月中旬沉没，造成250人失踪。奇迹般地，九人从海中获救。

一名幸存者告诉路透社，乘客们被塞进原本用来存放鱼和渔网的储物舱里，导致至少 30 人在船倾覆前窒息而死。

穆尼尔·乌兹·扎曼/法新社/盖蒂图片社

海上失踪人数的不断上升至少部分反映了科克斯巴扎尔的严峻形势。科克斯巴扎尔原本应该是一个避难所，但猖獗的犯罪和暴力、稀缺的资源和缺乏机会使得许多人绝望地逃离——即使冒着巨大的风险。

“他们看不到自己的未来，”莱瓦说。“所以他们决定冒险一试。”

难民在法律上被禁止在难民营外工作或学习，这使得他们严重依赖国际人道主义援助来满足食物等基本需求。此前，大部分援助都来自美国国际开发署（USAID），但去年该机构大幅削减了援助资金。

6 月，联合国与孟加拉国政府协调，向国际社会呼吁提供 7.105 亿美元，以满足“罗兴亚难民和当地收容社区最迫切的需求”——尽管需求不断增长，但这仍然是一个“高度优先”的数字。

暴雨和山体滑坡经常袭击丘陵地带和人口稠密的营地，造成居民死亡和流离失所，并使街道一年中有几个月都被水淹没。

穆尼尔·乌兹·扎曼法新社/盖蒂图片社

Md shamim Ul islam/SIPAPRE/Sipa USA/美联社

据营地内部消息，几乎每天都有难民被营地内的武装团体绑架，这些团体绑架包括幼童在内的民众，并向其家人勒索钱财。

只有极少数罗兴亚人被安置到美国等第三国，而自愿、安全地遣返回饱受冲突蹂躏的缅甸仍然遥不可及。

“未来前景相当黯淡，”孟加拉国达卡 BRAC 大学和平与正义中心执行主任 Shahariar Sadat 说。

萨达特负责科克斯巴扎尔的一个研究部门，他说他亲眼目睹了过度拥挤和国际援助削减对难民营的影响，包括犯罪率上升，以及教育、医疗保健和食物、清洁用水等基本服务减少。

最近，世界粮食计划署削减了对所有难民的每月粮食援助，向“粮食不安全”家庭提供 7 美元，向“高度粮食不安全”家庭提供 10 美元，而将之前每月 12 美元的援助金仅保留给那些被标记为“极度粮食不安全”的家庭。

萨达特说，人们常常被另一端经济稳定的虚假承诺引诱上船。

抵达马来西亚和印度尼西亚的难民面临着越来越敌对的待遇，并且基本上被禁止工作；这两个国家都不是联合国难民公约的缔约国。

马来西亚总理安瓦尔·易卜拉欣上个月表示，他的政府已与缅甸达成协议，将接收目前居住在马来西亚的约 5000 名罗兴亚难民。

沙布·米亚登上这艘船，希望在马来西亚能挣到足够的钱，为他6个月大的女儿提供更好的生活。

回到难民营后，他唯一的工作就是帮店主搬运货物，以及为其他难民运送救援物资。他的妻子鲁比娜·阿克瑟在自家的棚屋里抱着孩子告诉CNN。她说，运气好的时候，他一天能挣到相当于1美元或1.5美元的钱，但很多时候他一分钱也挣不到。

米亚六月离开难民营，返回他多年前逃离的家乡若开邦。6月23日，也就是船只启航前几天，他给阿克特打了个电话，嘱咐她好好照顾他们的女儿。

此后她就再也没有收到他的消息。

“每天晚上，我的女儿都是独自一人入睡的，”阿克瑟说。

“她太小了，还不明白他为什么再也没有回来，但总有一天她会问我她爸爸在哪里。我不知道该怎么回答她，因为我自己也还在等他。在知道真相之前，我无法停止希望，也无法停止哭泣。”

和阿克图尔一样，努尔也忍不住抱有一丝希望，希望他的儿子仍然活着。

“我们每天都在等待和祈祷，希望他还活着。”