The fishing vessel was carrying Rohingya fleeing violence in Myanmar but overturned near Inani beach close to Bangladesh's Cox’s Bazar city, the migration body said on Friday.

Speaking at a news conference in Geneva, IOM press officer Joel Millman, said 40 others are missing.

Millman also said 17 people were saved after the incident which happened in bad weather conditions.

Since Aug. 25 the number of Rohingya crossing from Myanmar’s Rakhine state to Bangladesh reached 518,000, he said.

UNICEF spokesperson Christophe Boulierac, meanwhile, said an estimated 300,000 in Rohingya refugee camps are children.

Boulierac added that they were concerned about infectious diseases due to a lack of clean water.

The refugees are fleeing security forces and Buddhist mobs which have killed men, women and children, looted homes and torched Rohingya villages.

According to Bangladeshi Foreign Minister Abul Hasan Mahmood Ali, around 3,000 Rohingya have been killed in the crackdown.

Turkey has been at the forefront of providing aid to Rohingya refugees and President Recep Tayyip Erdogan raised the issue at the UN.

The Rohingya, described by the UN as the world's most persecuted people, have faced heightened fears of attack since dozens were killed in communal violence in 2012.