DHAKA // Dozens of people were missing after an overloaded fishing trawler carrying migrants to Malaysia sank off the coast of Bangladesh on Thursday.
Emergency workers rescued 43 Bangladeshis in the Bay of Bengal after the boat capsized some 2.5 kilometres offshore, police and the coastguard said.
They said dozens more were unaccounted for, although it is unclear exactly how many people were on board.
One survivor said on local television there were around 80 people on the boat when it capsized and sank at around 3am.
More than four hours passed before he was rescued.
“We’re scouring a huge swathe of waters around the accident spot,” said coastguard commander Maruf Hassan.
“Our guards have so far rescued 32 people,” he said, adding local fishing trawlers had rescued others, while a few had managed to swim ashore.
Police all the passengers were Bangladeshi and they were heading to Malaysia by sea illegally.
Thousands of impoverished Bangladeshis and ethnic Rohingya refugees from Myanmar attempt the perilous journey to Malaysia every year.
About 50 people were killed in August last year when a crowded ferry sank in rough weather in Bangladesh’s Munshiganj district, while some 100 Rohingya refugees lost their lives in two boating tragedies off the Bangladesh coast in 2012.
Ferry and other boating accidents are common in Bangladesh, home to thousands of small and medium-sized boats, 95 per cent of which do not meet minimum safety regulations.
Mr Hassan said the boat had hit strong currents in a treacherous sea channel shortly after leaving a coastal town near the southern port city of Chittagong.
“It’s a small fishing trawler which was overloaded. It sank as it tried to make a turn in a dangerous channel,” he said, adding the stricken vessel had been dragged to the shore.
Rights groups say thousands have perished attempting the 3,200-kilometre journey to Malaysia, with many falling into the hands of people-traffickers.
Bangladesh’s coastguard and border forces have launched crackdowns on economic migrants, while also arresting a number of human traffickers and confiscating their ships. But there has been no noticeable impact.
* Agence France-Presse