Newly arrived migrants receive medical treatment under a makeshift tent at Kuala Langsa Port in Langsa, Indonesia. (Source: AP photo) More than 1,000 people fleeing persecution in Myanmar and poverty in Bangladesh came ashore around Southeast Asia, describing killings, extortion and near-starvation after surviving a harrowing journey at sea. An increasingly alarmed United Nations warned against “floating coffins” and urged regional leaders to put human lives first. The United States urged governments not to push back new boat arrivals.
The waves of weak, hungry and dehydrated migrants who arrived Friday were the latest to slip into countries that have made it clear they’re not welcome. But thousands more are still believed stranded at sea in what has become a humanitarian crisis no one in the region is rushing to solve. Most of the migrants were crammed onto three boats that Indonesian fishermen towed ashore while a group of 106 people were found on a Thai island known for its world-class scuba diving and brought to the mainland.
“If I had known that the boat journey would be so horrendous, I would rather have just died in Myanmar,” said Manu Abudul Salam, 19, a Rohingya from Myanmar’s Rakhine state where three years of attacks against the long persecuted Muslim minority have sparked the region’s largest exodus of boat people since the Vietnam War.
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Manu was aboard the largest boat to come ashore Friday, a wooden vessel crammed with nearly 800 people that was towed to the Indonesian village of Langsa in eastern Aceh province. The vessel was at sea when authorities around the region began cracking down on human trafficking two weeks ago. Aid groups and rights workers have warned that the crackdown prompted some captains and smugglers to abandon their ships and leave migrants to fend for themselves- a claim that was corroborated by survivors who came ashore Friday.
Manu said she watched the captain on her ship fleeing on a speed boat several days ago after apparently receiving a call on his cell phone. Before he left, he destroyed the boat’s engine, she said, and the boat began to drift. With food and water running out, tempers flared and fighting broke out, Manu said, sobbing, saying that her 20-year-old brother was among dozens killed in violent clashes between the Bangladeshis and Rohingya on board.
“They thought the captain was from our country, so they attacked us with sticks and knives,” she said, sobbing. “My brother is dead.” The bodies of the dead were thrown into the sea, she said. A 19-year-old Bangladeshi survivor, Saidul Islam, also said that dozens died on the ship from starvation and injuries after fighting broke out following the captain’s evacuation. His voyage lasted three months, starting when a man turned up at his village and asked if anyone wanted a boat ride to Malaysia, known for better job prospects. But once