US pleads for migrants adrift
THE UNITED States is exploring the possibility of Thailand giving shelter to Rohingya Muslims adrift at sea, and has urged countries in the region not to send the migrants back out to sea.
US Secretary of State John Kerry has phoned the Thai foreign minister to discuss temporary shelter for the Rohingya refugees, as the Thai prime minister said more migrants may take jobs from Thais, and Indonesia’s military chief warned of ‘‘social issues’’.
Nearly 800 boat people were brought ashore in Indonesia on Friday, but other vessels crammed with migrants were sent back to sea despite a United Nations call to rescue thousands adrift in Southeast Asian waters with dwindling food and water.
Thousands of Rohingya Muslims fleeing Myanmar and Bangladesh are stranded on boats as regional governments block them from landing. US State Department spokesman Jeff Rathke said nearly 3000 migrants had landed in Indonesia and Malaysia this week and were receiving help.
He said US ambassadors were ‘‘ intensely engaged’’ with governments about mounting a rapid humanitarian response.
‘‘We urge the governments of the region to work together quickly . . . to save the lives of migrants now at sea who are in need of an immediate rescue,’’ he said.
‘‘We urge governments in the region to refrain from push backs of new boat arrivals.’’
Many of the boat people are Rohingya, a stateless, Muslim minority people from Myanmar described by the United Nations as one of the most persecuted minorities in the world.
Rohingya and Bangladeshi migrants receive medical treatment in Langsa in Indonesia’s Aceh Province.
White House spokesman Eric Schultz said Washington continued to raise its concerns with Myanmar over the migrants that are fleeing ‘‘ because of dire humanitarian and economic situations they face at home out of fear of ethnic and religious violence’’.
The refugees have described scenes of murder, extortion and near- starvation after surviving a harrowing journey at sea.
An increasingly alarmed UN has warned against ‘‘floating coffins’’ and urged regional leaders to put human lives first.
Most of the migrants were crammed onto three boats that Indonesian fishermen towed ashore, while a group of 106 people were found on a Thai island known for its world- class scuba diving and brought to the mainland.
‘‘If
I
had
known
that
the
boat journey would be so horrendous, I would rather have just died in Myanmar,’’ said Manu Abudul Salam, 19, a Rohingya woman from Myanmar’s Rakhine state where three years of attacks against the long- persecuted Muslim minority have sparked the region’s largest exodus of boat people since the Vietnam War.
Manu was aboard a wooden vessel crammed with nearly 800 people that was towed to the Indonesian village of eastern Aceh Province.
The boat was at sea authorities around the began cracking down on trafficking two weeks ago.
Aid groups and rights workers have warned that the crackdown prompted some captains and smugglers to abandon their ships and leave migrants to fend for themselves – a claim that was corroborated by survivors.
Manu said she watched the captain on her ship fleeing on a speedboat several days ago after apparently receiving a call on his cellphone. Before he left, he destroyed the boat’s engine, and the boat began to drift.
With food and water running out, tempers flared and fighting broke out, Manu said, sobbing, saying that her 20-year-old brother was among dozens killed in violent clashes between the Bangladeshis and Rohingya on board.
The bodies of the dead were thrown into the sea, she said.
A 19-year-old Bangladeshi survivor, Saidul Islam, also said that dozens died on the ship from starvation and injuries after fighting
Langsa
in when region human broke out following evacuation.
His voyage lasted three months, starting when a man turned up at his village and asked if anyone wanted a boat ride to Malaysia, known for better job prospects.
Once at sea, the captain demanded hundreds of dollars and made the men call their families to secure payment. There were also beatings aboard the vessel, which was stifling hot and cramped.
Southeast Asia for years tried to quietly ignore the plight of Myanmar’s 1.3 million Rohingya but is now being confronted with a dilemma that in many ways it helped to create. In the past three years, more than 120,000 Rohingya have boarded ships to flee to other countries, according to the UN refugee agency.
No countries want them, fearing that accepting a few would result in an unstoppable flow of poor, uneducated migrants. Southeast Asian governments at the same time respected the wishes of Myanmar at regional gatherings, avoiding discussions of statesponsored discrimination against the Rohingya.
Myanmar, in its first official comments as the crisis escalated in the past two weeks, indicated it won’t take back migrants who claim to be Rohingya, who are denied citizenship in Myanmar and are effectively stateless.
UN Secretary- General Ban Ki Moon plans to speak with regional leaders to urge them to put human lives first. This week, about 1600 migrants were rescued by the Malaysian and Indonesian navies, but both countries then sent other boats away.
the
captain’s
We urge the governments of the region to work together quickly . . . to save the lives of migrants now at sea who are in need of an immediate rescue.’’