Children Make Up Nearly Half Of Rohingya Refugees Taking Perilous Boat Journeys In 2024 As Numbers Continue To Rise

Children made up just under half - 44% - of predominantly Rohingya refugees leaving Bangladesh and Myanmar by boat in 2024 as the number of people taking to sea continues to rise with about 460 so far in 2025, Save the Children said.

Last year, more than 7,800 Rohingya refugees embarked on perilous boat journeys, an increase of 80% on 2023. UN [1] data showed 44% of documented arrivals were children compared with 37% in 2023. A total of 656 passengers were reported dead or missing in 2024 compared with 416 in 2023, the highest number since 2014 [2].

So far 2025 has seen no let-up in the number of people embarking on the journey despite flimsy fishing boats often spending weeks at sea, with food and water sometimes running out before reaching land.

On 5 January, 254 Rohingya people landed in Aceh in Indonesia with 10 people reported missing or dead [1]. Save the Children’s partner organisation, the Geutanyoe Foundation, said 118 children were among the new arrivals.

Two days earlier 196 refugees arrived by boat in Langkawi in Malaysia with police detaining the new arrivals on the island. Two other boats are thought to be still at sea after authorities reportedly gave passengers food and water before escorting them out of Malaysian waters. Malaysia does not formally recognise refugees and has previously turned away boats or detained people as illegal migrants [3].

More than one million Rohingya refugees live in the world’s largest refugee settlement at Cox’s Bazar, Bangladesh. Since fleeing violence in Myanmar more than seven years ago, they are stateless and confined to camps, often in squalid and overcrowded conditions. Refugees are almost entirely dependent on humanitarian aid to survive.

Sultana Begum, Asia head of humanitarian policy and advocacy for Save the Children, said:

"Since February 2022, thousands of Rohingya refugee children have taken life threatening boat journeys from Bangladesh and Myanmar [1]. Thousands of children who have got on rickety boats in the scorching sun with meagre supplies of food and water. Thousands of children who have no guarantee they will get to safety and have risked everything in the hope of a better future.

"2025 must not be yet another year of despair for Rohingya refugees. The surge in life threatening boat journeys in 2024, taken predominantly by Rohingya refugees, should sound a global alarm.

"Escalating conflict in Myanmar, and the deteriorating conditions in the Bangladesh camps, including violence, dwindling humanitarian aid, lack of freedom of movement, and limited access to education and livelihoods, is driving these risky journeys which often take refugees through several different countries in Asia.

"Regional governments must act decisively. All governments in the region must live up to their international obligations. They must not push refugee boats back and allow them to land safely, provide legal protection in transit and destination countries and address the root causes of boat journeys."

Save the Children is one of the leading international NGOs working in the Cox’s Bazar camps in Bangladesh, providing child protection, access to learning, health and nutrition, water, sanitation and hygiene services, and distribution of shelter and food items. We have reached about 600,000 Rohingya refugees, including more than 320,000 children, since the response began in 2017.

© Scoop Media