NOT WELCOME: Malaysia and Thailand turn away Boats with Hundreds of Migrants

Rohingya migrants with airdropped food. A boat carrying 
them and scores of others, including young children, was 
found floating in Thai waters

Wooden fishing boat carrying several hundred desperate migrants from Myanmar was spotted adrift in the Andaman Sea between Thailand and Malaysia on Thursday, part of an exodus in which thousands of people have taken to the sea in recent weeks with no country willing to take them in.

Cries of “Please help us! I have no water!” rose from the boat as a vessel carrying journalists approached. “Please give me water!”

The green and red fishing boat, packed with men, women and children squatting on the deck with only plastic tarps to protect them from the sun, had been turned away by the Malaysian authorities on Wednesday, passengers said.

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They said that they had been on the boat for three months and that the boat’s captain and crew abandoned them six days ago. Ten passengers died during the voyage, and their bodies were thrown overboard, the passengers said.

“I am very hungry,” said a 15-year-old boy, Mohamed Siraj, who said he was from western Myanmar. “Quickly help us please.”

It was not clear how much help they would receive. The Thai military, alerted to their presence by The New York Times, provided some water and food on Thursday, then assisted the boat’s departure farther out to sea early Friday, according to the governor of Satun Province, Dechrat Simsiri.

Rohingya migrants swam to collect food supplies dropped 
by a Thai army helicopter. Getty Images

The boat’s plight provided a dramatic example of the migration crisis confronting the region: An estimated 6,000 to 20,000 migrants are at sea, fleeing ethnic persecution in Myanmar and poverty in Bangladesh, while countries are pointing fingers at one another and declining to take responsibility themselves.

Most of the migrants were thought to be headed to Malaysia, but after more than 1,500 came ashore in Malaysia and Indonesia in the last week, both countries declared their intention to turn away any more boats carrying migrants.

Thai officials have not articulated an official policy since the crisis began, beyond convening a regional conference to discuss the problem this month. Thailand is not known to have allowed any of the migrants to land there. The commander of the naval vessel that met the migrant boat here on Thursday, Lt. Cmdr. Veerapong Nakprasit, said it had “entered illegally.”

The Indonesian Navy turned away a boat with thousands of passengers on Tuesday, urging it on to Malaysia, while the Malaysian authorities turned away two boats with a total of at least 800 passengers on Wednesday.

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