Foreign Ministry spokesman Arrmanatha Nasir told reporters Thursday that one boat had headed for land after it was approached by a navy warship, while another asked to be left to continue on its way.
"The refugees were asking for food assistance, clean water, and fuel. Once everything was given, they [the boats] split up because they said they were not going to Indonesia."
Army spokesman Major General Fuad Basya had earlier said that the boat had been asked to turn around and not stay stranded in Indonesia territory.
Amnesty International said in statement Thursday that hundreds of Rohingya -- and increasingly Bangladeshi – have been at sea on such boats for possibly more than two months.
Many such migrants have been smuggled for years through Thailand in hopes of finding work in Malaysia, but the current crisis comes in the wake of a crackdown. At least five large trafficking camps have been found in Songkhla province, while more than 250 Rohingya Muslims and Bangladeshi -- abandoned by smugglers -- have been arrested.
Under pressure, the smugglers have been ditching boat fulls of emaciated Bangladeshi and Rohingya in Malaysia and in Indonesia or abandoning their vessels, leaving the migrants onboard adrift at sea.....http://www.aa.com.tr/en/news/509998--indonesia-says-did-not-tow-migrant-boat-from-its-waters
14/5/15
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Nearly 800 migrants reach land in Indonesia...
ReplyDeleteNearly 800 people have been brought ashore in Indonesia but other vessels crammed with migrants were sent back to sea despite a UN call to quickly rescue thousands set adrift in Southeast Asian waters.
Smugglers have abandoned ships full of migrants, many of them hungry and sick, in the Andaman Sea following a Thai crackdown on human trafficking.
Thailand is the first stop on the most common trafficking route used by criminals preying on Rohingya Muslims fleeing persecution in Burma, also known as Myanmar, and Bangladeshis seeking to escape poverty.
"The latest information we have is about 794 people were found in the middle of the sea and brought ashore by fishermen at 5am," a search and rescue official in a town in the Indonesian province of Aceh said.
"They are now in a warehouse by the port as a temporary arrangement," Khairul Nova added.
Nearly 1,400 migrants have landed in Aceh on Indonesia's western tip, and over 1,000 have landed in Malaysia.
Aceh is just across the Malacca Strait from Thailand and Malaysia.
However, migrants on two other boats were turned away.........http://www.rte.ie/news/2015/0515/701245-migrants-thailand/
15/5/15
The UN has condemned the refusal of South-East Asian countries to rescue thousands of migrants adrift at sea...
ReplyDeleteAt least 700 Bangladeshis and Rohingya from Myanmar were rescued off Aceh last week by locals, bringing the numbers in camps there to at least 1,500.
UNHCR spokeswoman Vivian Tan said the lack of rescues over the weekend was a "bad sign".
Aid agencies say a grave humanitarian crisis is in train as countries in the region refuse to accept the migrants.
People on the boats are believed to be severely malnourished. Survivors who have made it to shore say there have been deadly fights on board over food.
Ms Tan warned that "time is running out" to help the migrants.
"We were hoping that more ships would be found, and that more people would be rescued and allowed to come onto shore. Unfortunately, this didn't seem to have happened," she said....BBC
18/5/15
There are growing concerns for the welfare of hundreds of Rohingya migrants on a boat bounced between waters off Thailand, Malaysia and Indonesia that has not been heard from in more than 60 hours...
ReplyDeleteAround 300 men, women and children were found pleading for help last Thursday on the drifting trawler.
The Thai navy said it had repaired the engine and provided visibly thin passengers with food, water and medicine on both Thursday and Saturday before "escorting" the vessel into international waters.
But the location of the boat is now unknown.
Thai authorities insist the passengers wanted to travel southwards onto Malaysia and say they have had no news of the vessel since around 9pm on Saturday.
Indonesian and Malaysian officials have declined to comment on the status of a vessel which has been subject to what one rights group has coined "maritime ping-pong".
Chris Lewa of The Arakan Project, a Rohingya rights group that monitors boat crossings, said her team were last in contact with the ship by telephone on Saturday evening.
Since then the phones have gone unanswered.
Ms Lewa said: "They had told us that the men were taking all the food and that the women could not get the food. They were only getting little bits left over. That was the last we heard from them."....http://www.rte.ie/news/2015/0519/702123-rohingya-migrants-boat/
19/5/15
U.N. urges southeast Asian nations to let migrants reach land...
ReplyDeleteUnited Nations agencies urged Indonesia, Malaysia and Thailand on Tuesday to step up sea rescue operations and stop preventing thousands of desperate migrants from reaching land.
An estimated 4,000 men, women and children from Myanmar and Bangladesh are adrift in boats with dwindling supplies, the U.N. refugee agency (UNHCR) said. Half of them have been stranded on at least five vessels near the Myanmar-Bangladesh coast for more than 40 days, it said.
In a joint statement, joined by the International Organization for Migration (IOM), the heads of the UNHCR and U.N. human rights office called on the three countries to stop trying to push boats away from their territorial waters.
Authorities should "provide for effective, predictable disembarkation to a place of safety with adequate and humane reception conditions" and establish screening procedures to identify those in need of international protection as refugees, they added.......http://www.reuters.com/article/2015/05/19/us-asia-migrants-un-idUSKBN0O40ZD20150519?feedType=RSS&feedName=worldNews
19/5/15
Indonesian fishermen rescue hundreds of stranded migrants...
ReplyDeleteA flotilla of Indonesian fishermen rescued more than 430 migrants who were stranded at sea and brought them to safety on Wednesday, the latest in a stream of migrants to reach shore in a growing humanitarian crisis confronting Southeast Asia.
Hoping to find a solution, Indonesia, Thailand and Malaysia held an emergency meeting to address the plight of the migrants who are fleeing persecution in Myanmar and poverty in Bangladesh.
The migrants were rescued early Wednesday by more than a dozen fishermen’s boats, said Herman Sulaiman, from East Aceh district’s Search and Rescue Agency.
It was unclear if the migrants were on one boat or had come from several, but an initial batch of 102 people were the first brought to shore in the village of Simpang Tiga in Indonesia’s eastern Aceh province, Sulaiman and other rescuers said.
“They were suffering from dehydration, they are weak and starving,” Khairul Nove, head of Langsa Search and Rescue Agency in Aceh province. Among the 102 passengers were 26 women and 31 children, he said.
One of the migrants, Ubaydul Haque, 30, said the ship’s engine had failed and the captain fled, and that they were at sea for four months before Indonesian fishermen found them......http://www.france24.com/en/20150520-hundreds-rohingya-migrants-rescued-indonesia-months-sea
20/5/15
Indonesia, Malaysia Agree to Temporarily Shelter Stranded Migrants ...
ReplyDeleteIndonesia and Malaysia have agreed to provide temporary refuge for the thousands of migrants and human trafficking victims stranded at sea.
The breakthrough was announced Wednesday following a meeting between the foreign ministers of Malaysia, Indonesia, and Thailand, countries that had expressed a reluctance to assist the migrants.
Under the deal, Malaysia and Indonesia will "continue to provide humanitarian assistance" to the estimated 7,000 stranded migrants, said Malaysian Foreign Minister Anifah Aman.
"We also agreed to offer them temporary shelter provided that the resettlement and repatriation process will be done in one year by the international community," he added....voanews.com
Malaysia to launch rescue mission for migrants stranded at sea...
ReplyDeleteMalaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak has ordered the navy and coastguard to conduct search and rescue operations for boats carrying stricken migrants including ethnic Rohingya from Myanmar, also known as Burma.
"I have further ordered [the] Royal Malaysian Navy and Malaysian Maritime Enforcement Agency to conduct search and rescue efforts for Rohingya boats.
"We have to prevent loss of life," Mr Najib said on his Facebook account.
This morning's statement marked the first clear indication that Malaysian vessels would actively seek to reach such boats.
Yesterday, the Malaysian and Indonesian foreign ministers announced a breakthrough in the impasse involving thousands of migrants feared to be stranded at sea.
They said the two countries would allow the migrants to land on their shores, ending a much-condemned policy of turning them away, but did not specify at the time whether Malaysian forces would search for and rescue such boats.
Nearly 3,000 migrants have swum to shore or been rescued off Malaysia, Indonesia, and Thailand after a Thai crackdown on people-smuggling threw the illicit trade into chaos.
The boatloads of starving Rohingya and Bangladeshis have typically been found abandoned by their smuggling syndicates and left to fend for themselves.
http://www.rte.ie/news/2015/0521/702664-rohingya/
21/5/15
Myanmar navy carries out first rescue of migrant boat: Official ...
ReplyDeleteMyanmar's navy has carried out its first rescue of a migrant boat, bringing 208 people to shore, an official told AFP May 22, as it faced mounting international pressure to tackle a regional migration crisis.
"A navy ship found two boats... on May 21 while on patrol," Tin Maung Swe, a senior official in the western state of Rakhine told AFP, adding "about 200 Bengalis were on one of the boats".
"Bengalis" is a term often used pejoratively by Myanmar officials to describe the Muslim Rohingya minority, 1.3 million of whom live in the country but are not recognised as citizens.
The widespread persecution of the impoverished community in Rakhine state is one of the primary causes for the current regional exodus, alongside growing numbers trying to escape poverty in neighbouring Bangladesh.
The Thai-owned boat was guided to shore before dawn on May 22 in Maungdaw township -- the departure point for many Rohingya boats headed south through the Bay of Bengal.
Photographs on the Ministry of Information's Facebook page showed scores of bare-chested men crammed into the hull of a wooden fishing vessel as it made land.
The second vessel was empty, Tin Maung Swe said.
"Necessary medical healthcare and foods have been provided" to the passengers at a temporary camp in Maungdaw, he said......AFP.......hurriyetdailynews.com
22/5/15
US readies air patrols in search for Rohingya boat people...
ReplyDeleteAttention turned Friday to the seas off Southeast Asia's west coast as Malaysian naval vessels searched for stranded boat people and the U.S. military prepared air patrols to step up its involvement.
Thousands of Bangladeshis and Rohingya Muslims from Myanmar are believed to be trapped on crowded boats with little food or water - some after being pushed back by the navies of at least three countries - and the international community has warned that time to save them is running out.
In the first official rescue operation since migrants started washing onto Southeast Asia shores earlier this month, four Malaysian navy ships began searching the country's territorial waters for the boats. Navy chief Abdul Aziz Jaafar said three helicopters and three other ships were on standby.
After pushing back several vessels earlier in the month, Malaysia and Indonesia said Thursday they will provide temporary shelter to the desperate men, women and children if the international community helps resettle them within a year.
Indonesia said it would not actively search for the migrants, but will rescue those stranded or drifting in the country's waters close to its shores, said Arrmanatha Nasir, the Foreign Ministry spokesman. He said the country would not push them back out to sea.......dailystar.com.lb
22/5/15