The bodies of 23 Rohingyas who were fleeing Myanmar's Rakhine state have been recovered after their boat sank.
Thirty others are still missing, while eight people are reported to have survived the mishap.
The survivors said they were trying to reach Malaysia when their boat carrying more than 50 passengers foundered and was abandoned by its crew on Sunday.
Every year thousands of Rohingyas attempt the perilous sea journey to Malaysia or Indonesia.
They are escaping persecution in Myanmar and overcrowded refugee camps in Bangladesh. Those who died this week include 13 women and 10 men, all Rohingya Muslims, a rescue team told BBC Burmese. The Muslim Rohingyas are an ethnic minority in predominantly Buddhist Myanmar. Many of them fled to Bangladesh in 2017 to escape a campaign of genocide launched by the Burmese military. Those remaining in Myanmar too have been trying to flee since the military coup in 2021.
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