Rohingya migrants jump to collect food supplies dropped by a Thai army helicopter from a boat drifting in Thai waters off the southern island of Koh Lipe in the Andaman sea yesterday. A boat crammed with scores of Rohingya migrants — including many young children — was found drifting in Thai waters, with passengers saying several people had died over the last few days.
OFF KOH LIPE, Thailand: Malaysia turned away two vessels carrying hundreds of migrants while one boat turned up yesterday in Thai waters, as critics accused Southeast Asian governments of playing a game of “human ping pong” with the lives of desperate boatpeople.
Malaysia and Indonesia have vowed to bar ships bearing desperate migrants from Myanmar and Bangladesh who are flooding into Southeast Asia, triggering warnings that the hardline approach could endanger thousands at sea.
A boat crammed with scores of Rohingya — a persecuted Muslim minority in Myanmar — was found drifting in Thai waters.
As dusk fell several visibly emaciated men jumped into the sea to retrieve food packages dropped by a Thai navy helicopter.
An AFP reporter saw one of the men eat handfuls of raw instant noodles in the water before swimming back to the boat.
“About 10 people died during the journey. We threw their bodies into the water,” one of the migrants shouted in Rohingya to a boat full of journalists.
“We have been at sea for two months. We want to go to Malaysia but we have not reached there yet.”
Many young children were among the weak-looking passengers on the wooden boat, which was found near the southern Thai island of Koh Lipe in the Andaman Sea.
Sajida, 27, travelling with her four young children said she was also trying to reach Malaysia, but the boat was set adrift by people smugglers who damaged the engine and fled.
“We haven’t had anything to eat for a week, there is nowhere to sleep... my children are sick,” she told AFP.
A Thai navy officer on Koh Lipe said they planned to help fix the engine “so they can go to their destination.”
The UN refugee agency and rights groups say thousands of men, women and children are believed stuck out at sea and at risk of starvation and illness after a Thai police crackdown disrupted well-worn people-smuggling routes.
But Malaysian patrol ships intercepted two migrant vessels beginning late Wednesday off the northern Malaysian islands of Penang and Langkawi, said an official who spoke on condition of anonymity.
They carried a combined 600 people, the official added.
“Last night, one boat was pushed back after it entered Malaysian waters off Penang and one more boat was prevented from entering Langkawi waters,” the official said.
The boat off Langkawi may have been the same one that later turned up in Thai waters — both carried a makeshift banner declaring the passengers as Rohingya.
Rights groups say Thailand — which has called a May 29 regional meeting on the issue — also has a policy of not allowing such boats to berth.
AFP
