53,000 left BD, Myanmar braving risky boat voyages: UNHCR

An estimated 53,000 people departed from Bangladesh and Myanmar for Thailand and Malaysia by smugglers' boats during January-November 2014, risking their lives, reports UNB quoting a new UNHCR report.
The UNHCR estimates that 54,000 people have undertaken irregular maritime journeys in the region so far this year, says the UN Refuge Agency based on reports by local sources, media and people who survived the journeys.
Hundreds of others followed routes through the Indian Ocean from South Asia and Indonesia to Australia and across the Strait of Malacca from Malaysia to Indonesia despite the prospect of horrific violence en route.
The outflow from the Bay of Bengal tends to peak in October, when calmer waters follow the end of the rainy season, according to the report titled 'Irregular Maritime Movements in South-East Asia' prepared by UNHCR Regional Office on January-November 2014.
Departures this October surged more than in previous years. Some 21,000 Rohingya and Bangladeshis have set sail since then, a 37-per cent increase over the same period last year.
About 10 per cent are believed to be women. Roughly one-third of arrivals interviewed by UNHCR in Thailand and Malaysia were minors under 18 years of age. Children as young as eight years old are known to have made the journey alone.
In total some 120,000 people are believed to have embarked on these voyages in the Bay of Bengal since the start of 2012.
With payments ranging from US$ 1,600 to US$ 2,400 demanded for each passenger, smugglers plying this route are believed to have generated nearly US$250 million in revenue in the last three years.