Mizzima News

New Delhi (Mizzima) - Thailand should stop arresting and pushing back refugees and migrants who are illegally entering its waters, a United States-based refugee rights organization urged on Thursday.

Refugee International (RI), in a press statement on Thursday, said, "The Government of Thailand should instruct its Army to desist from its new and troubling policy of pushing refugees and migrants intercepted on boats back to sea."

The group said, Thailand in recent months, have detained groups of boatpeople - Rohingya from Western Burma's Arakan state and Bangladeshi migrants – who enter Thailand's waters illegally, at a remote island and force them back to the sea.

"The policy endangers their lives, and exposes them to the risk of drowning," the group said.

The group, citing reports, said Thai authorities in at least three cases removed the engines of the boats before towing them out to the sea after detaining them at an undisclosed island.

"One of the boats capsized, with four confirmed deaths and as many as 300 are still missing," the group said, adding that another boat was rescued and turned over to the Thai authorities and its passengers are now at risk of being pushed out again.

The Indian Coast guard at the Andaman and Nicobar Island said they were informed by the Andaman police that a boat with Bangladeshi and Burmese nationals had arrived at the South Bay in little Andaman.

The Indian coastguard, in its official statement, said it rescued a total of 99 people after a search and rescue operation.

According to some of the survivors, there were more than 400 of them in the group. They also said they were detained briefly by Thai authorities before being towed away into international waters.

Indian coastguards said they are still looking for the more than 300 missing boatpeople.

Similarly, Indonesian authorities said, they have rescued a group of 193 boatpeople, Burmese Rohingya and Bangladeshis, who landed on Sabang Island in Aceh province on January 7.

An official spokesperson of the Indonesia Ministry of Foreign Affairs on Thursday told Mizzima they are still investigating and are on discussing on what to do with the boatpeople.

Advocate Sean Garcia of the Refugee International said, "The Thai government is taking highly vulnerable people and risking their lives for political gain."

Garcia said, Thailand instead of pushing the boatpeople away should be engaging the Burmese government on improving conditions at home for the Rohingya if it wants to stem the flow.

"The Rohingya will continue to make the journey because they have no hope for a better life in Burma.  Pushing them back to sea is not an effective deterrent - it just jeopardizes lives," Garcia said.