With the monsoon over and seas relatively calm, increasing numbers of Rohingya Muslims are once again risking their lives attempting to reach Malaysia or Indonesia.
Bangladeshi authorities say they are stopping one or two boats a week leaving the country's shores, and many more are thought to evade patrols.
Few make it as far south as Kawthaung, Myanmar's southern-most tip, where on Sunday the country's navy picked up the 173-strong Rohingya group, including 69 women and 22 children, a military spokesman said."We will hand them over to immigration authorities and police to take action," Zaw Min Tun said, adding they had come from camps in Bangladesh and were heading to Malaysia.
Bangladesh has stoked fear among the Rohingya by erecting barbed-wire fences around the sites and installing checkpoints on nearby roads.An internet blackout, the confiscation of SIM cards and phones, and a clampdown on illegal documentation papers are also making refugees' lives even less bearable.
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