Rohingya traditionally take to sea in October, at the end of the rainy season, on journeys fraught with danger.
Of 3,572 Rohingya who have left on 34 boats this year, 31% of them were children, data showed.
In 2022, one of the deadliest years for the Rohingya at sea, a fifth of the about 3,705 people who fled were children.
"Children making the boat journeys was not a trend before," said Mohammed Mizanur Rahman, Bangladesh's refugee relief and repatriation commissioner based in Cox's Bazar.
With little hope of settling in Bangladesh or being accepted elsewhere, they feel they have no choice but to take to sea, Rahman said.
Persons:
Riska, Chris Lewa, Mohammed Mizanur Rahman, Rahman, taka, Mohammed Taher, Ruma Paul, Sudipto Ganguly, Krishna N, Das, Robert Birsel
Organizations:
REUTERS, Rights DHAKA, Malaysia, Thomson
Locations:
Sabang, Aceh province, Indonesia, Bangladesh, Myanmar, Bangladeshi, Cox's Bazar, Arakan, Southeast Asia, Indonesia's Aceh, South Asia, Dhaka, Mumbai