Rohingya refugees' desperate sea journey ends in tragedy as overcrowded boat sinks

About 250 people are missing after a rickety boat carrying Rohingya refugees and Bangladeshi nationals capsized in the Andaman Sea due to heavy winds, rough seas and overcrowding.

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The United Nations refugee and migration agencies said the trawler carrying around 250 men, women and children reportedly sank after departing from Teknaf in southern Bangladesh, bound for Malaysia. Thousands of Rohingya, Myanmar's persecuted Muslim minority, risk their lives every year fleeing repression and civil war in their homeland.

Rafiqul Islam, one of the nine survivors rescued by the Bangladeshi Coast Guard, told AFP he was lured onto the boat by traffickers promising him a job in Malaysia.