Rohingya survivor recalls deadly boat sinking as Malaysian, Thai rescuers find more bodies
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Malaysian Maritime Enforcement Agency officers searching for victims during a search-and-rescue operation.
PHOTO: REUTERS
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LANGKAWI/BANGKOK – The death toll from the sinking of a boat carrying members of Myanmar’s persecuted Rohingya Muslim minority climbed to 26 on Nov 11, as a survivor recalled a harrowing journey that left him floating for days in the Andaman Sea.
“I saw one person die. They drowned,” Mr Iman Sharif, 18, told reporters shortly after he was rescued on Nov 11 and taken into custody by Malaysian authorities.
He said he was aboard a large boat for eight days before being transferred to a smaller one with about 70 people. But the vessel sank shortly after, and he clung on to wreckage for days before washing up on a Malaysian island.
Fourteen survivors, mainly Rohingya and Bangladeshi citizens, have been rescued in Malaysian waters since rescue operations started on Nov 9.
As search operations continued, Malaysian authorities said another eight bodies had been recovered by Nov 11, taking the total to 20.
On the Thai side, an official told AFP on condition of anonymity that six bodies had been found, including at least two who carried identification cards issued by the United Nations’ refugee agency UNHCR.
Mr Romli Mustafa, regional director at Malaysia’s maritime agency, said that the Malaysian authorities would continue search operations until Nov 15, while a Thai rescue worker said on Nov 11 that search teams will widen their coverage around Koh Tarutao, where most of the bodies were found.
Malaysian and Thai authorities have widened a search for dozens of people still missing in the waters near the border between the two countries.
For years, many Rohingyas have embarked on rickety wooden boats to try to reach neighbouring countries, including Muslim-majority Malaysia and Indonesia as well as Thailand, bidding to flee persecution in Myanmar or overcrowded refugee camps in Bangladesh.
Buddhist-majority Myanmar denies abuses against the Rohingya in Rakhine state in the country’s west. It also claims that the Rohingya people are not citizens but illegal immigrants from South Asia.
Mr Iman said he was from Rakhine, where violent clashes between a powerful ethnic army and the country’s ruling junta have escalated in recent years, driving thousands of Rohingya to other countries for safety.
Hundreds of Rohingya people boarded a vessel bound for Malaysia two weeks ago and were transferred onto two boats on Nov 6, the Malaysian authorities have said.
The smaller boat carrying 70 people sank shortly afterwards, while the fate of about 230 people on board the other vessel remains unclear, officials said.
More than 5,300 Rohingya boarded boats to leave Myanmar and Bangladesh between January and early November, and nearly 600 of them have been reported dead or missing, the UN refugee agency and the International Organisation of Migration said in a joint statement on Nov 11.
The two organisations offered their support to local authorities to assist the survivors and called for greater international cooperation to achieve a political solution to the crisis and end hostilities in Myanmar.
“Until the drivers of onward movement and the root causes of forced displacement in Myanmar are resolved, refugees will continue to undertake dangerous journeys in search of safety,” they said.
The frequent arrival of Rohingya on boats operated by people smugglers has been a source of frustration for Asean, with Malaysia and Indonesia in particular criticising Myanmar for the way it treats the minority group.
Malaysia, which does not recognise refugee status, has in recent years begun to turn away boats and detain Rohingya as part of a crackdown on undocumented migrants.
Mr Joe Freeman, a Myanmar researcher from rights group Amnesty International, called on the region’s governments to address the issue of Rohingya boats at sea.
“We hope that these governments in the region – Malaysia, Thailand, others – allow Rohingya to land, that they coordinate search-and-rescue operations if they’re in distress, and absolutely under no circumstances push them back out to sea where they would face obviously more dangers and risks,” he said in an interview. REUTERS
