Coordinate Urgent Search And Rescue Of Rohingya Refugees At Sea, Allow Safe Disembarkation

(Kuala Lumpur, November 11, 2025)—The Government of Malaysia should coordinate with other Southeast Asian governments, including Thailand and Indonesia, to urgently launch search and rescue operations for Rohingya and other refugees stranded at sea, said Fortify Rights today. Regional governments should fulfill their international legal obligations to ensure the safe disembarkation of migrants and refugees at sea and provide them with humanitarian assistance.

According to the Malaysian Maritime Enforcement Agency, a boat carrying Rohingya and other refugees from Myanmar sank on November 6, 2025, near the Thai-Malaysia maritime border. In the days that followed, 21 dead bodies were recovered off the coast of Langkawi Island in Malaysia, by both Malaysian and Thai authorities. The authorities believe that three boats originated from a larger, single vessel carrying at least 300 people, which reportedly first departed from Buthidaung Township in Rakhine State, Myanmar. Only one of the three boats has been accounted for.

“Ongoing and unmitigated abuses by the Myanmar junta and Arakan Army in Rakhine State, along with dire conditions in Rohingya refugee camps in Bangladesh, are driving the Rohingya to risk their lives at sea,” said John Quinley, Director at Fortify Rights. “This is a years-long trend. Malaysia, Thailand, Indonesia, and other countries must act urgently to save lives, provide protection, and ensure safe disembarkation for all.”

In March 2019, the National Human Rights Commission of Malaysia (known as SUHAKAM) and Fortify Rights published a 124-page report, “Sold Like Fish,” based on a multi-year investigation into the human trafficking of Rohingya from Myanmar and Bangladesh to Malaysia through the Bay of Bengal by a transnational criminal syndicate between 2012 and 2015.

On February 1, 2021, the Myanmar military overthrew the democratically elected Government of Myanmar, triggering an ongoing nationwide pro-democracy armed revolution. Rohingya continue to face genocide and other international crimes in Myanmar—perpetrated by the Myanmar junta, the Arakan Army, and Rohingya armed groups— and migration routes available to them remain deadly.

More than one million Rohingya refugees are confined to squalid camps in Cox’s Bazar District, Bangladesh, where the government restricts basic freedoms, and where refugees face devastating humanitarian cuts following U.S. President Trump’s slashing of foreign aid in 2025.

After multiple cuts to aid this year, Rohingya refugees in Bangladesh are experiencing severe food shortages, surging child malnutrition, and growing gaps in health, water and sanitation services, as well as cuts to gender-based violence protection programs and teacher stipends.

At a high-level U.N. conference on Rohingya and other minorities in Myanmar in September, the U.S. government announced US$60 million in assistance for Rohingya refugees in Bangladesh. While important, this did not reverse the administration’s sweeping aid cuts, and humanitarian needs remain immense—prompting many Rohingya to flee, said Fortify Rights.

Fortify Rights has also documented how the Arakan Army—an ethnic armed group operating in western Myanmar—is conducting a campaign of persecution against Rohingya civilians, including killings, forced conscription, and dangerous forced labor on the frontlines of armed conflict. These operations have created widespread fear and displacement, pushing many Rohingya to flee across the border to Bangladesh or take perilous sea routes toward Southeast Asia, often orchestrated by human trafficking syndicates.

Malaysia, which hosts the second-largest Rohingya refugee population outside of Bangladesh, lacks a legal framework to recognise or protect refugees. Malaysia should ratify the 1951 Refugee Convention and its 1967 Protocol and establish a domestic legal framework to regulate refugee status and protection, said Fortify Rights.

Malaysia’s ongoing, multi-year immigration enforcement campaign against undocumented migrants and refugees has resulted in the authorities arresting, detaining, and pushing refugees back to Myanmar, where they face torture, imprisonment, persecution, forced conscription, armed conflict, displacement, and other grave violations.

In response to reports of the Rohingya refugees imperiled at sea, the Malaysian Maritime Enforcement Agency declared that “any attempt to enter Malaysian waters without authorization will be met with strict enforcement.”

Refugee “pushback” and “help-on” policies towards refugees are not humanitarian, said Fortify Rights. These policies—often practiced by Malaysian and Thai authorities— violate the international legal principle of non-refoulement, which prohibits the “rejection at the frontier, interception and indirect refoulement” of individuals at risk of persecution. The principle of non-refoulement is part of customary international law and binding on all states, said Fortify Rights.

“Malaysia must uphold its responsibility to protect refugees in need of safety and people in distress at sea,” said John Quinley. “Hundreds of lives are at stake. The authorities must act without delay.”

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