Thailand Finds Migrant boat, Declines Permission to Land

By Al-Zaquan Amer Hamzah and Panarat Thepgumpanat

KUALA LUMPUR/BANGKOK, May 14 (Reuters) – Thousands of migrants adrift in Southeast Asian seas have nowhere to go after Thailand declined permission for a ship to land on Thursday and Malaysia mentioned it might push boatpeople again out to sea.

Smugglers have deserted ships stuffed with migrants, a lot of them hungry and sick, following a crackdown on human trafficking in Thailand, the commonest first vacation spot for Rohingya Muslims fleeing persecution in Bangladesh and Myanmar.

Thailand wouldn’t allow a ship with 300 migrants, together with many ladies and younger kids, discovered drifting in its waters on Thursday to land, officers mentioned.

“We declined them entry to the country but we gave them food and water to adhere to our human rights obligations,” regional police official Major General Puttichat Akhachan instructed Reuters.

The boat was discovered 17 km (10 miles) off the coast of the southern island of Koh Lipe. TV photos confirmed crying moms and younger kids pleading for assist.

The U.N. refugee company UNHCR has warned the scenario may develop right into a “massive humanitarian disaster” and has mentioned governments ought to rescue the boatpeople reasonably than ship them on their method.

Many of the arrivals are Rohingya, a stateless individuals described by the United Nations as some of the persecuted minorities on this planet.

Somchai Na Bangchang, a rear admiral within the Royal Thai Navy, mentioned migrants on the boat discovered on Thursday didn’t need to land in Thailand however as a substitute wished to go to Malaysia or Indonesia.

But an NGO that has been involved with the boat for a number of days mentioned it was turned away by Malaysia on Wednesday after Thai fishermen had towed the boat into Malaysian waters.

Malaysian sailors dragged the boat again in direction of Thailand, mentioned Chris Lewa of the Arakan Project, which tracks the migration of stateless minority Muslim Rohingya from Myanmar.

Malaysia mentioned on Thursday it might push boats stuffed with migrants again to sea, a coverage that has drawn criticism from the UNHCR.

“We are sending them the right signal, to send them to where they came from,” Malaysian Deputy Home Minister Wan Junaidi Tuanku Jaafar mentioned.

“Their country is not at war. If there is nothing wrong with the ship, they should sail back to their own country.”

An estimated 25,000 Bangladeshis and Rohingya boarded rickety smugglers’ boats within the first three months of this 12 months, twice as many in the identical interval of 2014, the UNHCR has mentioned.

“The first priority is to save lives,” mentioned Volker Turk, the UNHCR’s Assistant High Commissioner for Protection, in an announcement on Wednesday. “It is key for states to share the responsibility to disembark these people immediately.”

Malaysia mentioned the UNHCR ought to discover one other nation for the migrants.

“I don’t see why we are under pressure,” Wan mentioned. “We are doing what we think we should do. We have to consider what our people want to see us doing. They don’t want to see immigrants come into our country.”

Thailand, too, mentioned it wanted assist from worldwide organizations.

“We have fielded the country’s borders and will not let Rohingya into Thailand,” mentioned nationwide police chief Somyot Pumpunmuang.

“These international organizations shouldn’t just make requests without providing support through funding and budgets.”

Thailand ordered a clean-up of suspected traffickers’ camps final week after 33 our bodies, believed to be of migrants, had been present in shallow graves close to the Malaysian border.

The crackdown has made traffickers cautious of touchdown in Thailand, the popular vacation spot for the area’s individuals smuggling networks, and led to a surge in migrants to Indonesia and Malaysia.

The navies of each Thailand and Indonesia had mentioned their coverage was to supply meals and water to migrants on Wednesday and to not ship boats again out to sea.

But Thai authorities officers have mentioned the nation shouldn’t be receiving boatpeople – that’s the reason they’re arriving in Malaysia and Indonesia.

More than 1,600 migrants arrived in Indonesia and Malaysia on the weekend and are on land. But Indonesia supplied meals, water and medical provides to round 500 on one other boat off the coast of the northwestern province of Aceh on Monday, earlier than sending the vessel in direction of Malaysia.

“There is some confusion on policy,” Vivian Tan, the spokeswoman for UNHCR in Thailand, mentioned on Thursday. “The numbers are quite overwhelming.”

The United States final 12 months downgraded Thailand and Malaysia to its checklist of the world’s worst facilities of human trafficking, dumping them in the identical class as North Korea and Syria. (Additional reporting by Kaweewit Kaewjinda in BANGKOK; Writing by Simon Webb and Aubrey Belford; Editing by Nick Macfie)

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