00:00More than 500 people are feared dead after two boats reportedly capsized off the coast of Myanmar.
00:07The UN Refugee Agency and the International Organization for Migration say
00:11the vessels left Rakhine State in late June,
00:15carrying mostly Rohingya refugees, including some who had traveled from camps in Cox Bazar, Bangladesh.
00:23One boat, believed to be carrying around 250 people, lost contact shortly after departure.
00:30While its second vessel, carrying around 280 people, is thought to have sunk off Myanmar's Ayarwadi coast.
00:36For years, Rohingya have risked dangerous sea journeys in search of safety and better livelihoods in countries including Malaysia, Indonesia
00:45and Thailand.
00:46The UN says nearly 900 Rohingya refugees died or went missing in the Andaman Sea and Bay of Bengal last
00:53year,
00:54making it the world's deadliest maritime route for refugees and migrants.
00:58The Rohingya exodus began in 2017 after a military crackdown in Myanmar's Rakhine State
01:03forced hundreds of thousands of people to flee to nearby Bangladesh.
01:07M
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