About 1,600 Rohingya and Bangladeshi refugees have landed in
Malaysia and Indonesia in the past day, apparently after human
traffickers abandoned their virtual floating prison ships and left the
passengers to fend for themselves, reports AP.
But an estimated 6,000 Bangladeshis and Rohingya Muslims from Myanmar
remain trapped in crowded, wooden boats, migrant officials and activists
said Monday. With food and clean water running low, some could be in
grave danger, reports the Associated Press.
Worried that vessels will start washing to shore with dead bodies, the
U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees, the United States and several other
foreign governments and international organizations held emergency
meetings in recent days, but participants say there are no immediate
plans to search for vessels in the busy Malacca Strait waterways.
One of the problems was determining what to do with the Rohingya if a
rescue was launched, participants said on condition they not be named.
Seven boats were rescued Sunday after human traffickers abandoned the
ships and left passengers to fend for themselves, officials said.
Nearly 600 migrants were brought to shore in western Indonesia and just
over a thousand others to Malaysia's Langkawi island.
Denied citizenship in Myanmar, the Rohingya are effectively stateless.
"At this point, I'm not sure what the concrete next steps are or should
be," said Vivian Tan, the UNHCR's regional press officer in Bangkok,
Thailand.
"There is a real sense of urgency, but there doesn't seem to
be a clear mechanism in this region for responding to something like
this."
Moreover, she said, the location of the boats and the number of people
on board needed to be clarified.
Some weak and hungry survivors waded to shore, others swam.
Chris Lewa, director of the non-profit Arakan Project, which has been monitoring boat departures and arrivals for more than a
decade, estimates more than 100,000 men, women and children have boarded
ships since mid-2012.
Lewa believes up to 7,000 Rohingya and Bangaldeshis are still on small
and large boats in the Malacca Strait and nearby international waters,
some after more than two months at sea.
Tightly confined, and with limited access to food and clean water, their
health is deteriorating, Lewa said, adding that dozens of deaths have
been reported. Police found a big wooden boat late Sunday night trapped
in the sand in shallow waters at a beach in Langkawi and have since
located 865 men, 101 women and 52 children, said island deputy police
chief Jamil Ahmed. He added many appeared weak and thin and that at
least two other boats have not been found.
He said a Bangladeshi man told police the boat handlers gave the
passengers directions on where to go once they reached Malaysian shores
before abandoning the group and escaping into other boats.
"We believe there may be more boats coming," Jamil said.
When the four ships neared Indonesia's shores, some passengers jumped
into the water and swam, said Steve Hamilton, of the International
Organization for Migration in Jakarta, Indonesia's capital.
Since May 1, police have unearthed two dozen bodies from shallow graves
in the mountains of southern Thailand, the apparent victims of smuggling
rings, they say.
Thai authorities have since arrested dozens of people, including a
powerful mayor and a man named Soe Naing, otherwise known as Anwar, who
was accused of being one of the trafficking kingpins in southern
Thailand.
More than 50 police officers are also under investigation.
Reuters adds: First Admiral Maritime Zulkifli bin Abu Bakar, the head of
criminal investigations in the Malaysian Maritime Enforcement Agency,
said the arrivals in Malaysia were a surprise and couldn't say if they
were linked to the Thai crackdown.
"We didn't expect large numbers like this to come down," he said.
Of those rescued off Indonesia, around 50 were taken to hospital. "In
general, they were suffering from starvation and many were very thin,"
said North Aceh police chief Achmadi.
Some of the migrants had initially believed they had arrived in
Malaysia.
The refugees were being held in a gymnasium in the town of Lhoksukon,
about 20 km (12 miles) from where they were brought ashore.
Mohammad Kasim, a Bangladeshi migrant on one of the boats, told Reuters
that each passenger paid 4,400 ringgit ($1,200) for the journey to what
they thought would be Malaysia. Three people died on the journey and
were dumped in the sea, he said.
"We are hearing the passengers were left close to shore and were told
that this is Malaysia and you got what you paid for. They came onshore
and found out it wasn't Malaysia," said Mark Getchell, head of the
International Organization for Migration in Indonesia.
An agency official estimated that around 300 people had died at sea in
the first quarter of this year as a result of starvation, dehydration
and abuse by boat crews.
Kasim, 44, said he had left the Bangladesh town of Bogra a month ago on a
small boat with 30-40 other people in the hope of finding a job in
Malaysia. An agency in Bogra helped arrange the trip.
"Before, I worked in Malaysia for three years in construction when
I was 16. I wanted to go back because it is very difficult to
find work in Bangladesh," Kasim, speaking in Malay, told Reuters.
After leaving Bogra, they arrived at a Thai beach where he said they
stayed for 21 days before leaving on a larger ship with hundreds of
passengers.
"I didn't know where I was but I was on the beach," Kasim said.
Source: The News Today
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