Rohingya refugees stuck in captivity in Malaysia, one year on
In total, 390 trafficking victims have spent the past year in detention, despite nominally being freed from captivity in May 2015
Hundreds of refugees from Myanmar and Bangladesh remain detained in Malaysia a year after being rescued from near-certain death at sea during the Asian migration crisis.
In total, 390 trafficking victims – 325 Rohingya and 65 Bangladeshis – have spent the past year in detention, despite nominally being freed from captivity in May 2015, according to research released on Friday by Amnesty International.
Their plight drew the world’s attention this time last year after it was discovered that they had been abandoned by their traffickers and left to drift at sea on packed trawlers without any food.
Initially, the countries of southeast Asia mostly refused to rescue them, and they survived on food provided by fishermen in the area. Fighting broke out between different groups on board. “They hit us, with hammers, by knife, cutting,” one survivor told The Guardian at the time.
Following an international outcry, Indonesia and Malaysia took in about 2,900 people, mostly Rohingya and Bangladeshis. Several thousand are believed to have been left at sea.
One year on, these people who have been through this horrific journey are still being punished, rather than being treated as victims of human trafficking
Of the 1,100 brought to Malaysia, around 50 Rohingya were resettled internationally, and 670 Bangladeshis were sent back home. But nearly 400 remain jailed in Belantik, a Malaysian detention centre, in what former inmates describe as squalid conditions.