Koh
Lipe, Thailand. Thailand has found more than 100 migrants on a southern
island but thousands remain adrift as boats are pushed back out into Southeast
Asia’s seas by governments who have ignored a UN call for a coordinated rescue.
The
crisis has arisen because smugglers have abandoned boats crammed with migrants,
many of them thirsty and sick, in the Andaman Sea following a Thai crackdown on
human trafficking.
The
clamp-down has made the preferred trafficking route through Thailand too risky
for criminals preying on Rohingya Muslims fleeing persecution in Myanmar and
Bangladeshis seeking to escape poverty.
About
2,500 migrants have landed on Indonesia’s western tip and the northwest coast
of Malaysia over the past week. Thailand found 106 more on Friday on an island
in the southern province of Phang Nga, provincial governor Prayoon Rattanasenee
told Reuters. It was unclear how they got to the island, he said.
“Most
of them are men but there are also women and children,” Prayoon said. “We are
trying to determine whether they were victims of human trafficking.”
Those
that have made it to land are the lucky ones.
Two
boats that crossed the Malacca Strait from the Thailand-Malaysia side have been
turned away by the Indonesian navy, and on Friday another was towed out to sea
by the Thai navy.
The
boat towed out by Thailand was again near Thai waters early on Saturday, after
heading first toward Indonesia and then Malaysia on Friday, said Thai
Lieutenant Commander Veerapong Nakprasit.
The
Thai and Indonesian navies have restocked the boats they have pushed back with
food and water and said the migrants did not want to come ashore in their
territory. But those on board have nowhere to go, and are not skilled
navigators.
The
region’s governments have been criticised by the International Organization for
Migration for playing “maritime ping-pong” with the migrants and endangering
their lives.
The
United Nations this week urged governments to fulfil an obligation to rescue
those at sea and “keep their borders and ports open … to help the vulnerable
people who are in need”.
The
United Nations said the deadly pattern of migration by sea across the Bay of
Bengal would continue unless Myanmar itself ended discrimination.
Most
of Myanmar’s 1.1 million Rohingya Muslims are stateless and live in
apartheid-like conditions in Rakhine state in the west of the predominantly
Buddhist country. Almost 140,000 were displaced in clashes with ethnic Rakhine
Buddhists in 2012.
Myanmar
uses the term “Bengalis” for the Rohingya, a term most Rohingya reject because
it implies they are immigrants from Bangladesh despite having lived in Myanmar
for generations.
Thailand
has called for talks with Myanmar and Malaysia to resolve the crisis.
Myanmar
had not received any invitation to talks and would not attend if the word
Rohingya was used, Zaw Htay, a senior official from the president’s office,
said on Saturday.
“We
haven’t received any formal invitation from Thailand officially yet,” he said
in an emailed response to questions from Reuters.
“And
another thing, if they use the term “Rohingya” we won’t take part in it since
we don’t recognise this term. The Myanmar government has been protesting
against the use of it all along.”
Photo:
Thai fishermen, right, give some supplies to migrants on a boat drifting 17
kilometers off the coast of the southern island of Koh Lipe on Thursday. (Reuters
Photo)
Jakarta
Globe / Reuters
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