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Reuters

Thousands of Rohingya boatpeople who have left Myanmar in the past month are missing, raising fears their boats have been prevented from reaching shore.
About 12,000 Rohingya, a mostly stateless Muslim people, have left the western Myanmar state of Rakhine since October 15, said Chris Lewa of the Arakan Project, which plots migration across the Bay of Bengal.
Another 4,000, both Rohingya and Bangladeshis, left neighbouring Bangladesh during the same period, Lewa said.
The boatpeople are headed for Malaysia, but most transit through Thailand, where smugglers and traffickers hold them at jungle camps near the Malaysian border until relatives pay ransoms to secure their release.
About 460 boatpeople were found and detained by the Thai authorities this month, but thousands more have not made landfall or contacted relatives after what is usually a five-day voyage.
"Where are they?" Lewa said. "We have become very concerned."
The last time so many boatpeople went missing was in 2008, she said. Hundreds of Rohingya, many starving and dehydrated, were later rescued from Indonesian and Indian waters, while others were feared lost at sea.
Thailand's prime minister later said there were "some instances" in which Rohingya boats had been pushed out to sea to "let these people drift to other shores", but that they had adequate food and water.
Tens of thousands of Rohingya Muslims were displaced in 2012 after deadly clashes with Buddhists in Myanmar's Rakhine state. Many Rohingya now live in squalid camps with little or no access to jobs, health care or education.
Prejudice against the group is widespread in Myanmar, which says they have no right to citizenship, despite having lived in the area for generations.
On Friday, US President Barack Obama stepped up international criticism of such discrimination and called on Myanmar to grant them equal rights.
A senior Thai military official said measures were in place to deter boats from coming near the country's shores.
Banpot Phunpian, spokesman for the Internal Security Operations Command, said its army officers were trained to warn boats and their crews not to anchor near Thailand's coast.
Sajeda, 32, lives in Thae Chaung, a fishing village near the Rakhine capital, Sittwe, that has become a teeming camp for Rohingya displaced in 2012.
She said goodbye to her 13-year-old son Mubarek on October 18. He then boarded a fishing boat with 62 other Rohingya, among them woman with young children hoping to reunite with husbands in Malaysia.
Sajeda, who uses only one name, has heard no news from Mubarek. "I'm going crazy with worry," she said.


Activist fears for thousands of missing Rohingya boatpeople

A Rohingya fisherman passes the time among boats at the Thae Chaung refugee camp outside Sittwe, Myanmar. Photo: Reuters

News

Asia

Activist fears 12,000 boatpeople are in peril, prevented from landing


Thousands of Rohingya boatpeople who have left Myanmar in the past month are missing, raising fears their boats have been prevented from reaching shore.
