A crying Rohingya mother in a yellow headscarf cradling her five-week-old infant son who died after their boat capsized is one of the most powerful Reuters images of Muslim refugees fleeing violence in Myanmar.

Hamida, her husband Nasir Ahmed and their two young sons were among 18 refugees on a small fishing boat crossing the Bay of Bengal to the Bangladesh village of Shah Porir Dwip.

As they neared the shore, the boat capsized and they were tossed into the murky water.

Reuters photographer Mohammad Ponir Hossain was taking pictures of exhausted refugees on the beach when he heard an autorickshaw driver shouting that a boat had capsized.

"I rushed to the spot and found people crying over the dead body of a child," Ponir said.

He took a picture of Hamida, cradling the tiny pale body of her child, Abdul Masood. He appears to have died as the survivors scrambled through the crashing waves to shore.