- As Merkel ‘agrees on migrant deal’ in German coalition talks
An overcrowded boat carrying Rohingya Muslims fleeing Myanmar capsized in the confluence of a river and the Bay of Bengal and at least 12 people died, police said Monday. Five of the dead were children.
Up to 35 people were on the boat and eight survived the capsizing, local police official Mainuddin Khan said. He said rescuers have retrieved 12 dead bodies but it was not exactly clear how many were missing. The search was continuing, but the sea remained rough.
The capsizing occurred near the Shah Porir Dwip in Bangladesh’s southern coastal district of Cox’s Bazar as the boat was moving toward Bangladesh late Sunday.
Hundreds of thousands of Rohingya have fled Myanmar since Aug. 25 when the military launched a crackdown that had been decried by the United Nations as “ethnic cleansing.” Including Sunday’s capsizing, boat accidents have killed at least 155 Rohingya trying to reach Bangladesh.
Myanmar’s military launched what it described as “clearance operations” after an insurgent group attacked security posts and killed several police and border guards. The U.N. said Myanmar’s response was “disproportionate” compared to the insurgents’ action.
The refugees arriving in Bangladesh have described indiscriminate violence and widespread arson in their home villages in Myanmar’s Rakhine state along the Bangladesh border.
Bangladesh’s Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina says her government will continue to support the Rohingya but Myanmar must take them back.
In the meantime, German Chancellor Angela Merkel’s party has agreed an immigration policy with its sister party, media reports say.
The breakthrough in talks with the Christian Social Union (CSU) would overcome a major hurdle as Mrs Merkel’s Christian Democrats (CDU) seek to form a coalition government.
The CSU has called for a cap on refugee numbers and blamed Mrs Merkel for the rise of the nationalist AfD.
The AfD party entered parliament for the first time, with 12.6% of the vote.
It is increasingly seen as far-right in tone with its focus on immigration and Islam.
The CSU leader and Bavarian premier, Horst Seehofer, has called for migrant numbers to be restricted to 200,000 a year after Mrs Merkel allowed in 1.3 million mainly Middle Eastern migrants and refugees from 2015.
The Chancellor is opposed to caps but has said she does not want a repeat of the big influx seen at the height of the migrant crisis.
A deal between the CSU and CDU would pave the way for Mrs Merkel to pursue coalition negotiations with other parties.
The CSU lost votes to the AfD and its vote share fell by 10 percentage points to 38.8%.
The Bavarian party, which faces state elections next year, has developed a 10-point plan, seen as proposing a shift to the right, Germany’s ARD reports.
“We must fight the AfD hard, and fight for its voters,” the policy document says.
Before the election, Mrs Merkel governed in a grand coalition with the Social Democrats (SPD), but with her reduced majority and the SPD’s refusal to govern with her again, she must look elsewhere to form another government.
ABC with additional report from BBC
