Thai Govt: Ship of Abandoned Myanmar Migrants Will Not Land in Thailand

A boat of abandoned refugees from Myanmar found by reporters and naval officers off the coast of Satun province on 14 May 2015. [Photo: Royal Thai Navy]

BANGKOK — A spokesperson for Thailand's military government said the refugees from Myanmar found by foreign reporters in the Andaman sea today will continue traveling to another country.

The boat, carrying around 300 people, including children, who identified themselves as Myanmar refugees, was spotted by reporters from the New York Times and BBC near Lipe island.

The passengers said the captain and crew dismantled the ship’s engine before abandoning them to starve at sea. 

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A boat of abandoned refugees from Myanmar found by reporters and naval officers off the coast of Satun province on 14 May 2015. [Photo: Royal Thai Navy]

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Maj.Gen. Sansern Kaewkamnerd, a spokesperson of the Thai military government, said naval officers have provided the group with food and water, and are currently repairing their boat.

According to Maj.Gen. Sansern, the refugees told Navy officers they intended to travel to another country, likely to be Malaysia or Indonesia, although the boat's passengers told the New York Times they had already been rejected by Malaysian authorities.

"Once ships from the Third Region Navy inspected the boat and asked about the refugees’ intentions, we discovered that none of them intended to land on the Thai coast,"  Maj.Gen. Sansern said.  "I expect that the repair of the refugee boat's engine will be completed tonight. They will be able to continue their journey as they wish." 

He continued, "We have given the Navy clear policy that if refugees intend to land on the Thai coast, they are welcome to do so, and we will give them humanitarian assistance, but we will treat them in accordance with laws about illegal entry into the country."

The discovery of the ship came as Thailand and other countries in the region struggle to manage an influx of migrants fleeing ethnic persecution in Myanmar and poverty in Bangladesh. The United Nations' refugee agency estimates that 25,000 people departed from Myanmar and Bangladesh on boats in the first quarter of 2015, a number twice as high as the same period last year.

A recent crackdown on human smuggling in Thailand, a common pit stop for traffickers seeking to move migrants into Malaysia, has spurred many boat captains to abandon their human cargo. Human rights workers estimate that at least 8,000 migrants are currently stranded off shore with dwindling amounts of food, while no country in the region appears willing to take the desperate passengers in.  

Many of the refugees have been identified as Rohingyas, a Muslim minority who faces state-sanctioned discrimination in Myanmar. The others hail from Bangladesh, where an estimated 300,000 Rohingyas live in impoverished refugee camps.

Thailand has called for an international summit to address the mounting humanitarian crisis on 29 May, but the UN and other human rights agencies say action must be taken sooner, before the Andaman sea becomes a floating cemetery.

"The Thai, Malaysian, and Indonesian navies should stop playing a three-way game of human ping pong, and instead should work together to rescue all those on these ill-fated boats," said Phil Robertson, Human Rights Watch’s Asia Director. "The world will judge these governments by how they treat these most vulnerable men, women, and children."

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Read more:
Prayuth Rules Out Permanent Shelters for Rohingyas
Malaysia Beefs Up Sea Patrols Amid Migrant Boat Arrivals

 
 
 

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