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22 Asia-Pac. J. on Hum. Rts. & L. 1 (2021)

handle is hein.journals/apjur22 and id is 1 raw text is: ASIA-PACIFIC JOURNAL ON HUMAN RIGHTS AND ASIA-PACIFICJOURNAL B IL THE LAW 22 (2021) 1-7 0 H ANI T N IJ H O F F brill.com/aphu Special Issue on the Rohingya and the Andaman Sea Crisis: Six Years On Introduction As this special issue goes to print, a boat believed to be carrying 81 stateless Rohingya refugees - including 23 children - is floating off the coast of India. It left Cox's Bazar in southern Bangladesh on Li February 2021 destined for Malaysia, but quickly suffered an engine failure and was left adrift in the Andaman Sea. The United Nations issued an urgent call for nearby govern- ments to find and rescue the vessel which was eventually detected by the Indian coastguard two weeks after setting out on its ill-fated journey. There were eight dead on board, and the surviving passengers were reported to be suffering from starvation, extreme dehydration and illness. Their plight did not end with this 'rescue', however. India provided food, water and medical supplies and repaired the boat, but refused to permit its entry to Indian waters or allow its passengers to disembark. India has claimed the Rohingya should return to Bangladesh, while Bangladesh argues they should be accepted by India or returned to Myanmar, from where they fled persecution. India, the State closest in terms of geographical proximity and the one which located and provided assistance to the vessel, would appear to have the primary obligation to disembark the passengers to a place of safety. Bangladesh's resist- ance to reaccepting the group must be understood in the context of the almost one million Rohingya refugees it already hosts in the Kutupalong and Nayapara settlements in its southern Cox's Bazar district. Recent efforts to relocate refugees to the silt island of Bhasan Char and a fire, which destroyed thousands of shel- ters, the main hospital and other vital services in the Kutupalong settlement - home to more than 600,000 people - demonstrate the pressure on Bangladesh to accommodate the Rohingya. Return to Myanmar is the least plausible solution, not only because the conditions for repatriation in safety and dignity are not yet in place, but because Myanmar is facing its own new challenges. A military coup on i February 2021 led to the detention of Myanmar's elected leaders and a return to conflict. International condemnation is growing in response to the Tatmadaw's increasingly violent crackdown on pro-democracy protesters and civilians. © KONINKLIJKE BRILL NV, LEIDEN, 2021 DOI:10.1163/15718158-22010001