Thailand urged to let refugee status of stranded Rohingya be evaluated by UN
- The 59 ethnic Rohingya travelled from Bangladesh on a fishing boat and the ship’s captain left them on the Thai island telling them it was Malaysia, Navy said
- The Rohingya have long been persecuted in Myanmar and many have attempted perilous sea journeys to Malaysia, a country relatively lenient to arriving migrants
A group of ethnic Rohingya left on a Thai island after a dangerous boat journey from Bangladesh should be given help and the opportunity to determine if they are refugees, Human Rights Watch said Tuesday.
The mostly Muslim Rohingya have long been persecuted in Myanmar. More than 700,000 fled to neighbouring Bangladesh in 2017 to escape a military counter-insurgency campaign that the US and others have called genocide. Since then, Rohingya have attempted to leave both Myanmar and Bangladesh on perilous sea journeys to Malaysia, a Muslim-majority country relatively lenient to arriving migrants.
The voyages are often arranged by human trafficking gangs who charge large sums for passage on rickety old boats. Those boats that do not sink can end up elsewhere in Southeast Asia. Thailand, especially, tries to turn them away, usually after supplying fuel and food. Boat passengers who make it ashore in Thailand are detained by authorities or sent by the traffickers to work in slave-like conditions.
The Thai navy said the 59 Rohingya left an island in the Andaman Sea had travelled from Bangladesh on large fishing boats. “But when they arrived, the ship’s captain brought these people to the island and said it was Malaysia,” the navy’s statement said.
The 31 men, 23 women, three boys and two girls were detained after being found Saturday on the southern island of Koh Dong. The navy said it will continue to follow Thailand’s standard procedures, including providing humanitarian help, for people deemed to be immigrating illegally.