Inside the Rohingya trafficking route to Malaysia
- Ahtaram Shin
- 5 minutes ago
- 3 min read
Report by Ayub Khan DKL
"I saw people drowning. Some were swimming and floating. I saw Romida drowning with her children, holding the kids," Omar said. He survived the recent boat sinking near the Thai Malaysia border.
Omar's family paid 3.5 lakhs (USD $3,000) to the traffickers on October 21. He left the camp on November 1, 2025, and the boat journey to Malaysia began the same day.
According to Omar, AA (Arakan Army) members were the main traffickers operating the larger ship. He reported seeing several AA members wearing AA caps and T shirts and carrying guns, though not in full uniforms. The trafficking network first gathers people at the border, then transfers them to the larger ship using smaller boats. In the Bay of Bengal, many AA security guards operate, and the traffickers cooperate with AA to move people to Malaysia on their vessels. For this trip, AA had brought people from Rathidaung, Maungdaw, and Buthidaung.
"There were several Bangladeshi and local Burmese people on the boats, and a few were on ours," Omar said. Dr. Maung Zarni confirmed to TRT World that one Bangladeshi and one Burmese person had been rescued. Another source reported that some fishermen were abducted from the Naf River and Barmer.
"After two days of our journey, on November 3, a woman was brutally beaten and thrown into the sea by AA," Omar said. He explained that if anyone became seriously ill on the boat, the traffickers simply threw them into the water.
Seven days into the journey, on November 9, Omar’s boat reached Thai maritime waters where they waited for nine days. On November 10, a small boat arrived and took 100 people out of the 270 passengers, then returned. The next day, November 11, the small boat took another 100 people. On the third day, November 12, the same small boat came again and took the remaining 70.
Around 10 to 15 minutes after the small boat left, the weather turned extremely dangerous. The large boat capsized around 2pm. "People were drowning. Some were swimming and floating. I saw Romida drowning with her children, holding the kids," Omar repeated.
Romida was traveling with her two children to reunite with her husband in Malaysia for family resettlement and to give her children a better education, according to her brother Amir. She did not want to travel in such a dangerous way but agreed after her husband insisted repeatedly. Her family arranged the deal with the traffickers and her husband paid the fee of 3.5 lakhs.
Omar, who swam and floated to a nearby Thai island, confirmed Romida’s death. "When I reached the island, I saw the sunset, so it was evening," he recalled. "I stayed there for two days. Then a small fishing boat found me."
At first he believed they were rescuers, as they had already taken 10 other survivors to a reception center in Thailand. But he later realized they were traffickers. Two days after the boat sank, they returned and sent him to Malaysia after taking the agreed payment.
Brokers later handed Omar over to his relatives in Malaysia. "Most people had to pay an extra 50 to 80 thousand taka, even though the promise was 3.5 lakh taka," he said. By November 16, he had already been in Malaysia for six days.
The capsizing of the boat and the deaths of Rohingya like Romida reveal the intense desperation forcing families into deadly journeys. Omar’s survival shows both the brutality of the trafficking system and the failure of regional authorities to protect vulnerable people. As long as persecution, insecurity, and hopelessness continue, Rohingya men, women, and children will remain trapped between danger on land and danger at sea.
Many Rohingya who leave the camps do so because they see no future in a place where they have lived for years without rights, freedom of movement, or the possibility of rebuilding their lives. The longer this limbo continues, the more people will feel pushed into desperate and dangerous journeys.
