Madhura Chakraborty, Calcutta Research Group. She is
currently engaged in a research on forced migration with specific focus on
Rohingya refugees in India
According to the International Organisation for
Migration around eight thousand Rohingyas and Bangladeshis were stranded[i]
in the Malacca Strait, being refused entry by the South East Asian nations of
Thailand, Malaysia and Indonesia. The current crisis with boatloads of migrants
abandoned in the sea comes in the wake of the discovery of mass graves in
people smuggling
camps in Southern Thailand. As Thai authorities are
cracking down on human smugglers, many
traffickers along with the crew have left these
boats with hundreds of desperate asylum seekers
on board without food, water or any means of
survival in the open sea.
In early May a series of mass graves and jungle camps were discovered in the
Songkla province of Thailand near the Malaysian border. These were discovered
to be the bodies of Rohingya migrants as well as Bangladeshis who were smuggled
via sea in exchange for money by traffickers who promised to take them to
Malaysia. Many were held at these camps and tortured while their relatives back
home were extorted for money. Thai police start investigating the trafficking
network and begins crackdowns which lead to the arrest of many trafficking ring
leaders including a local municipal councillor in Thailand[ii]. On 6 May
Bangkok Post ran a report predicting that these crackdowns would make the
situations even worse: they quote Chris Lewa who said that "The raids have
gone up in the last few months and the smugglers keep moving their camps,
abandoning those who are too ill to leave with them,"[iii]
.
In recent months traffickers have switched to
keeping thousands of migrants on boats in international waters, rather than
risk bringing them to Thailand.
"There is a huge bottleneck at sea," Ms
Lewa said. "That is an even more dangerous situation."[iv]
The ‘blitz on people-smuggling trade’[v],
as one report put it, came in the wake of pressure from European Union and USA
regarding the way Thailand handles trafficking.
On 8 May, speaking from Geneva, the UNHCR
spokesperson Adrian Edwards[vi],
voiced concerns over the increase in numbers of desperate boat migrants in the
Bay of Bengal. He reported that despite the risks of these journey and
extortion by smugglers 25,000 people of Rohingya and Bangladeshi origins
boarded these boats in the first three months of 2015. This is double the numbers
in the same period in 2014. Based on interviews with survivor UNHCR has drawn
the following conclusion:
1. The
Modus operandi of the smugglers have changed--the victims are given passage for
low cost or for free provided that they promise to repay the debt once they get
jobs in Malaysia. In some cases there are cash incentives and promises of jobs.
People are unaware that money will be extorted from them later in the journey
and what started with being smuggled soon turns into forceful trafficking. There
are accounts of children being abducted and forced on boats.
2. An
estimated 300 people have died due to starvation, dehydration and abuse in the
boats in the first quarter of 2015
3. The
boat passengers disembark in southern Thailand and are taken on a day long
arduous trip to jungle camps in the borders of Malaysia where they are held
while their relatives are extorted for ransom. Rapes, torture and shootings are
not uncommon.
4. UNHCR
notes that since last October it has been the practice of some traffickers to
hold the people ransom at sea and once money is paid for them they are taken
directly to Malaysia.
5. UNHCR
enjoined the countries in the region to work more closely together to counter
the smuggling and trafficking of vulnerable people.
Reports of stranded boats refused entry by the
countries of the region started making a splash on international media with
photos and videos of desperate migrants calling out for help, around 13 May.
For the next week more such boats were reported--abandoned by the crew and the
smugglers, without food and water and any knowledge of navigation, the migrants
were starving to death. The victims reported that their boats were forced back
to the open sea at gunpoint by the Malaysian and Thai authorities[vii].
As more and reports and videos poured in there were
discussions about the policy of ‘push back’ for refugees and migrants. Mathew
Davies from Australia writes:
The Government's policy of "turning back the
boats" has been one of its few political success stories - first in
opposition when it bludgeoned the Gillard government with it, and then in power
when it militarised the issue, authorised the tow-back of incoming boats and
crafted elaborate offshore processing systems. The victims have remained
largely faceless, stripped of their identity in the press and safely kept away
from the cameras.
But in crafting this policy Australia weakened both
the international refugee regime as a set of rules and norms that should shape
how states deal with such refugee flows and helped along a regional trend that
has questioned the international regime as never before.[viii]
Days later, in midst of the crisis Australian prime
minister was quoted as having said:
"I don't apologise in any way for the action that
Australia has taken to preserve safety at sea by turning boats around where
necessary...And if other countries choose to do that, frankly that is almost
certainly absolutely necessary if the scourge of people smuggling is to be
beaten." If that meant taking "more vigorous" action on the high
seas or closer to Burma, so be it, he said[ix].
Online
media platforms from the region
interviewed Yangon residents who all expressed sympathy for the victims[x].
With international pressure mounting with requests to intervene from UN and
USA, Thailand, Malaysia and Indonesia convened an emergency meeting. While by
the 20 May more than 3000 migrants had landed in Malaysia and Indonesia, the
Globe and the Mail reported that an estimated 6000 still remain trapped[xi].
As the talks were being planned, Burmese Prime Minister Thein Sein’s office
announced that they would not participate in the meeting if the term ‘Rohingya’
was brought up[xii].
Thai Prime Minister Prayuth Chan-ocha said:
"As there are many of them, we cannot look
after them properly. Where will we put them?...In the future, if many more of
them come, it will cause a problem. They will steal the jobs and livelihoods of
Thais."
Philippines was the first country that indicated its
willingness to give refuge to the boat people[xiii] before
the talks took place.
On 20 May urgent talks between the Foreign Ministers
of Thailand, Malaysia and Indonesia were held following which statements were
issued by officials of the last two countries that they will "continue to
provide humanitarian assistance to those 7,000 irregular migrants still at
sea". The shelter provided to the rescued migrants, however, will be of
temporary nature conditional upon repatriation within a year[xiv].
To rescue the remaining migrants in sea Thailand offered a floating naval base
but refused to take anyone but the seriously ill on shore[xv].
As Malaysia urged Myanmar to take responsibility,
military commander-in-chief Min Aung Hlaing responded that ‘some “boat people”
landing in Malaysia and Indonesia this month are likely pretending to be
Rohingya Muslims to receive UN aid and that many had fled neighbouring Bangladesh’[xvi]
The Burmese authorities ‘accused governments of trying to divert their human
smuggling and slavery problems by dumping the blame on Myanmar’[xvii].
On the other hand, the Bangladeshi Prime Minister Sheikh Haseena, called the
migrants, and those who want to migrate ‘mentally sick’ and accused them of
tarnishing the country’s image[xviii].
On 26 May yet more jungle camps and mass graves were
discovered in Wang Kelian in Malaysia in the border of Thailand. Currently
bodies are being exhumed and twelve police officers have been arrested in this
connection.
The number of jungle camps, offshore boat
internments and mass graves give an estimate of the scale of the problem and
the consistent refusal of the Myanmarese and Bangladesh to deny that they had
any part in it does nothing but exacerbate the situation. Many have drawn
comparison with S.S. St. Louis full of German Jews were refused asylum in USA
and had to return to Germany where many died in the ensuing Holocaust[xix].
The Rohingyas, as the world watches, Nikolas Kristof writes for New York Times,
are in the same predicament. And countries who have resumed ties and lent their
support to the democratic process in Myanmar should put pressure for them to
stop the discrimination and massacre of Rohingyas.
[i] http://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-32740637
[ii]http://www.bangkokpost.com/learning/learning-from-news/549355/suspected-migrant-graveyard-discovered-in-songkhla
[iii] http://www.bangkokpost.com/news/general/552783/trafficking-crackdown-poses-new-dangers-for-victims
[iv] http://www.bangkokpost.com/news/general/552783/trafficking-crackdown-poses-new-dangers-for-victims
[v]http://www.bangkokpost.com/news/asia/555455/thailand-hunts-trafficking-suspects-in-blitz-on-people-smuggling-trade
[vi]
http://www.mizzima.com/news-international/unhcr-warns-sharp-increases-boat-people-bay-bengal
[vii] http://www.kashmirtimes.com/newsdet.aspx?q=41261
[viii]
http://www.abc.net.au/news/2015-05-18/davies-rohingya-and-our-rule-bending-arrogance/6477148
[ix]
http://www.sbs.com.au/news/article/2015/05/17/abbott-defends-boat-turn-backs-left-thousands-stranded
[x]
http://yangon.coconuts.co/2015/05/16/yangon-residents-express-sadness-and-anger-over-rohingya-plight
[xi]http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/world/1600-rohingya-bangladeshi-boat-people-rescued-but-thousands-still-stranded-at-sea/article24363116/
[xii]http://www.aljazeera.com/news/2015/05/myanmar-deflects-blame-rohingya-migrant-crisis-150516223643074.html
[xiii]http://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/may/19/philippines-offers-refuge-to-desperate-asylum-seekers-trapped-on-boats
[xiv]http://www.aljazeera.com/news/2015/05/scores-refugees-rescued-indonesian-coast-150520021111009.html
latin; mso-bidi-font-family:"Times
New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font:minor-bidi;}
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/world/1600-rohingya-bangladeshi-boat-people-rescued-but-thousands-still-stranded-at-sea/article24363116/
[xv] http://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-32879985
[xvi]http://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/may/22/burma-military-chief-claims-refugees-pretending-to-be-rohingya-to-get-aid
[xvii]http://www.aljazeera.com/news/2015/05/myanmar-deflects-blame-rohingya-migrant-crisis-150516223643074.html
[xviii]http://www.aljazeera.com/news/2015/05/bangladesh-pm-calls-migrants-mentally-sick-150524192524482.html
[xix]
http://www.nytimes.com/2015/05/14/opinion/nicholas-kristof-crisis-at-sea.html?_r=0
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