Activists estimate as many as 8,000 so-called boat people remain adrift, many without adequate food or water, after a Thai crackdown on a vast people-smuggling ring disrupted the criminal transportation networks.
Malaysia, Indonesia, and Thailand - three countries where the migrants and refugees have tried to reach - say the desperate migrants are not their responsibility, rejecting appeals by the U.N. and rights groups.
Malaysian Deputy Home Minister Wan Junaidi on Thursday said his country must "send the right message: that they are not welcome here." Other Malaysian officials said sea and air patrols were being ramped up to prevent "illegal intrusion."
Earlier this week, over 1,000 abandoned boat people swam ashore in Malaysia. Officials say they are now being held in detention camps while preparations are being made to send them elsewhere.
Nearly 600 migrants were also rescued on Sunday by the Indonesian navy. Officials say those boat people are now being given food and shelter in the north Aceh region while the government consults with the U.N. and other international bodies.
Other boats carrying hundreds of people have been intercepted by the Malaysian and Indonesian navies, which after providing the migrants with emergency food and water supplies, turned them away.
The U.N. refugee agency this week appealed for an international search and rescue operation to help the boat people. Many survivors have said those stuck at sea are hungry and sick, and some have died.
Many of the refugees are Rohingya Muslims from Myanmar, where they are the victims of persecution that Human Rights Watch says amounts to ethnic cleansing and crimes against humanity. Rohingya people in Myanmar are largely denied basic rights such as citizenship and freedom of movement.
Others on board the boats are thought to be Rohingya and other migrants who are trying to escape poverty in Bangladesh.
The boat people are victims of a large-scale human trafficking campaign under which the migrants were promised jobs in neighboring countries but were later held for ransom or sold, essentially as slaves.
After years of pressure by international rights groups, Thailand recently moved to crack down on the multimillion dollar people-smuggling ring. In the process, it found several abandoned jungle camps, including some that contained mass graves with dozens of bodies. Officials have arrested more than a dozen alleged smugglers, including some senior local officials.
voanews.com
14/5/15
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Malaysia turns away 2 boats with more than 800 migrants...
ReplyDeleteThousands of Rohingya Muslims and Bangladeshis abandoned at sea by human traffickers had nowhere to go today (May 14) as Malaysia turned away two boats crammed with more than 800 migrants, saying it could not afford to keep being “nice”.
Indonesia and Thailand also appeared unwilling to provide refuge to desperate men, women and children, despite appeals by the UN High Commissioner for Refugees, international aid agencies and rights activists, who warned lives were at risk.
Fearing arrests, captains tied to trafficking networks have in recent days abandoned ships in the busy Malacca Strait and surrounding waters, leaving behind their human cargo, in many cases with little food or water, according to survivors.
Around 1,600 have been rescued but an estimated 6,000 remain stranded at sea.....AP........http://www.todayonline.com/world/asia/malaysia-turns-away-boat-more-500-migrants?singlepage=true
14/5/15
Flüchtlinge aus Myanmar....Malaysia weist Schlepper-Boote ab...
ReplyDeleteSeit Monaten treiben Tausende Bootsflüchtlinge aus Myanmar und Bangladesch in der Straße von Malakka und nahegelegenen Gewässern. Malaysia, Indonesien und Thailand wollen sie nicht haben – und weisen sie harsch ab.
Malaysia hat zwei Schiffe mit mehr als 800 Flüchtlingen an Bord abgewiesen. „Jetzt ist es an der Zeit, ihnen zu zeigen, dass sie hier nicht willkommen sind“, sagte der stellvertretende Heimatminister Wan Junaidi Jaafar am Donnerstag. Menschenrechtsorganisationen kritisierten Thailand, Indonesien und Malaysia, die Flüchtlinge wegzuschicken und sprachen von einer großen humanitären Katastrophe, die umgehend gelöst werden müsse. Die Vereinten Nationen warnten, Leben würden so aufs Spiel gesetzt............http://www.handelsblatt.com/politik/international/fluechtlinge-aus-myanmar-malaysia-weist-schlepper-boote-ab/11776524.html
14/5/15
Myanmar migrants on a boat stranded for a week in the Andaman Sea with no food or water say 10 people have died, while some are resorting to drinking urine...
ReplyDeleteThe fishing boat, carrying about 350 people of the Muslim Rohingya minority, has been refused entry to Thailand.
Those on board told the BBC the crew abandoned them and disabled the engine. They said the bodies of those who had died were thrown overboard.
Indonesia, Malaysia and Thailand have been turning away migrant boats.
Several thousand people are still believed to be stuck in boats off the coasts of Thailand and Malaysia.
Most are Rohingya Muslims who cannot go back to Myanmar, also known as Burma, where they are not recognised as citizens of the country and are regularly persecuted....BBC
Asia's new boat people: beaten, abandoned and pushed back to sea..
ReplyDeleteInitially, it was a relief for the hundreds of migrants packed into a rickety fishing vessel when, in the dead of night, their captain and his crew took off in a speedboat and abandoned them in the sea between South and Southeast Asia.
Initially, it was a relief for the hundreds of migrants packed into a rickety fishing vessel when, in the dead of night, their captain and his crew took off in a speedboat and abandoned them in the sea between South and Southeast Asia.
For three weeks, they had been abused by the Thai men, who thrashed them with gun butts and scalded them with hot water.
Mohammad Husein, a Rohingya Muslim who had left Myanmar in mid-April brimming with hope for a better future, showed an ugly gash on his head. There was a swelling on one of Husein's shins the size of a ping-pong ball, where one of the crew members had struck him with a metal bar when he asked to relieve himself.
But after their tormentors had gone, things only got worse.
The roughly 600 men, women and children from Myanmar and Bangladesh - part of a new wave of Asian 'boat people' - meandered for two days around the Bay of Bengal's southeastern corner on a boat designed for just a third of their number, watching for the Malaysian coast to come into sight.
"We were sent out to sea in the middle of the night but we had no food or water and we didn't know where were going or how to get to Malaysia. So we just kept going," said Husein...........Reuters.....channelnewsasia.com
15/5/15