About 250 people, including children, were feared missing after a boat carrying Rohingya refugees and Bangladeshi nationals capsized in the Andaman Sea, the United Nations said on Tuesday.

"The trawler, which departed from Teknaf in southern Bangladesh and was on its way to Malaysia, reportedly sank due to heavy winds, rough seas, and overcrowding," the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) said in a statement.

Thousands of Rohingya, Myanmar's persecuted Muslim minority, risk their lives every year fleeing repression and civil war in their country by sea, often aboard makeshift boats.

The Rohingya on board the boat were likely leaving huge camps in Bangladesh's Cox's Bazar, where more than a million refugees forced to flee Myanmar's western state of Rakhine live in squalid conditions.

Rakhine state has been the scene of fierce fighting between the military and the Arakan Army, an ethnic minority rebel group, over control of the territory.

The exact circumstances surrounding the latest incident were unclear, but preliminary information indicated that the vessel was carrying 280 people and left Bangladesh on April 4.

"This tragic incident reflects the dire consequences of protracted displacement and the absence of durable solutions for the Rohingya," the UNHCR statement said.

It was also "a reminder of the efforts urgently needed to address the root causes of displacement in Myanmar and create conditions that would allow Rohingya refugees to return home voluntarily, safely and with dignity," it said.

The Andaman Sea stretches along the western shores of Myanmar, Thailand and the Malay Peninsula.

Last year, the UNHCR said that 427 Rohingya were feared dead at sea in two shipwrecks off the Myanmar coast in May. (AFP)



Edited by Robert Kemp