'No such boats'
Bangladesh's coastal authorities meanwhile, denied the presence of any trawlers carrying Rohingya refugees in its territorial waters.
Speaking to Al Jazeera, Lieutenant Commander Sohail Rana, Teknaf station head of Bangladesh coastguard said they had not seen any "boats carrying Rohingya refugees in Bangladesh's territorial water in the past few days".
"The areas that we patrol have no such boats," Rana said.
A Bangladeshi fisherman, however, told HRW that on April 20 he saw "two trawlers full of Rohingya coming toward the shore while I was at sea in my fishing trawler with others".
The same day, a local resident posted on Facebook: "Again, trawlers full of Rohingya are heading to Baharchara Union [in Cox's Bazar]. They are waiting at sea to enter into Bangladesh."
It is believed that most of the Rohingya refugees on board the trawlers had left refugee camps in Bangladesh in an attempt to reach Malaysia, according to HRW.
The organisation reported that it had spoken to 10 families who said their family members had left the camps and they had not heard from them since.
A mother from Kutupalong extension camp told HRW: "One of my sons left the camp some two months ago. Around 20 days back, I got a phone call from my son to pay money to smugglers. We paid. But we have not heard anything since."
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