Data on earlier movements
UNHCR has collated and analyzed data collected from over 500 interviews of refugees who were among
over 100,000 Rohingya estimated to have crossed the Bay of Bengal and Andaman Sea from 2012 to 2015
(as noted above, UNHCR has not been able to identify any individuals who departed for Malaysia in 2016).
Estimates of Rohingya refugees, who travelled alongside Bangladeshi migrants to Malaysia on this sea route,
are based on the proportion of Rohingya and Bangladeshis as reported in UNHCR interviews. The results
conirm previous observations that the crossing was one of the world’s deadliest, and that the proportion of
women steadily increased over time.
As the table below shows, the fatality rate in the Bay of Bengal and Andaman Sea was 1.2% from 2013 to
2015, with a peak of 1.7% in 2013. During the same period, the fatality rate in mixed movements across the
Mediterranean Sea was 0.6%, with a peak of 1.6% in 2014 (in 2016, the fatality rate of the Mediterranean
crossing was 1.4%). While deaths in the Mediterranean have been mostly attributed to capsizes and
drownings, deaths in the Bay of Bengal and Andaman Sea were largely due to smuggler abuse and
deprivation.
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