Staff Reporter :
A boat carrying several hundred victims of human trafficking from Bangladesh and Myanmar has been towed out of Indonesian waters, Indonesia’s Navy spokesman said on Tuesday.
“We didn’t intend to prevent them from entering our territory, but because their destination country was not Indonesia, we asked them to continue their journey to the country where they actually want to go,” Indonesia’s Navy spokesman Adm. Manahan Simorangkir told the journalists.
But the Indonesian navy confirmed that it had provided the boat with fuel and towed it out of Indonesian waters, declining to say if it was heading to Malaysia, its suspected destination.
Meanwhile, migrant officials and activists said an estimated 6,000 Bangladeshis and Rohingya Muslims from Myanmar remain trapped in crowded wooden boats. With food and clean water running low, some could be in grave danger, they feared.
One vessel that reached Indonesian waters early Monday was stopped by the Navy and given food, water and directions to Malaysia.
“We gave them fuel and asked them to proceed. We are not forcing them to go to Malaysia nor Australia. That is not our business. Our business is they don’t enter Indonesia because Indonesia is not the destination.” the navy spokesman told the journalists.
The vessel arrived off Aceh with about 400 migrants on board, local authorities estimated, one of a series of vessels to arrive in Indonesia and Malaysia in recent days carrying people from Bangladesh and Myanmar.
Adm. Manahan Simorangkir said they were trying to go to Malaysia but got thrown off course.
Those who made it to shore aboard the other boats on Sunday were taken to a sports stadium in
Lhoksukon, the capital of North Aceh District, to be cared for and questioned, said Lt. Col. Achmadi, chief of police in the area, who uses only one name.
“We had nothing to eat,” said Rashid Ahmed, a 43-year-old Rohingya man who was on one of the boats.
He said he left Myanmar’s troubled state of Rakhine with his eldest son three months ago.
A Bangladeshi man, Mohamed Malik, said he felt uncertain about being stranded in Aceh, but also relieved. “Relieved to be here because we receive food, medicine. It’s altogether a relief,” the man said.
Police also found a big wooden ship late Sunday night trapped in the sand in shallow waters at a beach of Langkawi, an island off Malaysia, and have since located 865 men, 101 women and 52 children, said Jamil Ahmed, the area’s deputy police chief. He added many appeared weak and thin and that at least two other boats have not been found.
“We believe there may be more boats coming,” Jamil said.
Chris Lewa, director of the nonprofit Arakan Project, which has been monitoring boat departures and arrivals for more than a decade, estimates more than 100,000 men, women and children have boarded ships since mid-2012.
Most are trying to reach Malaysia, but recent regional crackdowns on human trafficking networks have sent brokers and agents into hiding, making it impossible for migrants to disembark – in some cases even after family members have paid $2,000 or more for their release, she said.
Lewa believes up to 7,000 Rohingya and Bangaldeshis are still on small and large boats in the Malacca Strait and nearby international waters.
Tightly confined, and with limited access to food and clean water, their health is deteriorating, she said, adding that dozens of deaths have been reported.
“I’m very concerned about smugglers abandoning boatloads at sea,” said Lewa. Since May 1, police have unearthed two dozens bodies from shallow graves in the mountains of southern Thailand, the apparent victims of smuggling rings, they say.
Meanwhile, Thai police on Monday obtained an arrest warrant for a man they said was a key financer behind the entire Rohingya trafficking racket in the South.
The suspect, the 50th and latest wanted in connection with human labour trafficking in the region, has been identified as fugitive Pajjuban Angchotiphan, or Ko Tong. He is a brother of a high-ranking local politician based in Satun.
A boat carrying several hundred victims of human trafficking from Bangladesh and Myanmar has been towed out of Indonesian waters, Indonesia’s Navy spokesman said on Tuesday.
“We didn’t intend to prevent them from entering our territory, but because their destination country was not Indonesia, we asked them to continue their journey to the country where they actually want to go,” Indonesia’s Navy spokesman Adm. Manahan Simorangkir told the journalists.
But the Indonesian navy confirmed that it had provided the boat with fuel and towed it out of Indonesian waters, declining to say if it was heading to Malaysia, its suspected destination.
Meanwhile, migrant officials and activists said an estimated 6,000 Bangladeshis and Rohingya Muslims from Myanmar remain trapped in crowded wooden boats. With food and clean water running low, some could be in grave danger, they feared.
One vessel that reached Indonesian waters early Monday was stopped by the Navy and given food, water and directions to Malaysia.
“We gave them fuel and asked them to proceed. We are not forcing them to go to Malaysia nor Australia. That is not our business. Our business is they don’t enter Indonesia because Indonesia is not the destination.” the navy spokesman told the journalists.
The vessel arrived off Aceh with about 400 migrants on board, local authorities estimated, one of a series of vessels to arrive in Indonesia and Malaysia in recent days carrying people from Bangladesh and Myanmar.
Adm. Manahan Simorangkir said they were trying to go to Malaysia but got thrown off course.
Those who made it to shore aboard the other boats on Sunday were taken to a sports stadium in
Lhoksukon, the capital of North Aceh District, to be cared for and questioned, said Lt. Col. Achmadi, chief of police in the area, who uses only one name.
“We had nothing to eat,” said Rashid Ahmed, a 43-year-old Rohingya man who was on one of the boats.
He said he left Myanmar’s troubled state of Rakhine with his eldest son three months ago.
A Bangladeshi man, Mohamed Malik, said he felt uncertain about being stranded in Aceh, but also relieved. “Relieved to be here because we receive food, medicine. It’s altogether a relief,” the man said.
Police also found a big wooden ship late Sunday night trapped in the sand in shallow waters at a beach of Langkawi, an island off Malaysia, and have since located 865 men, 101 women and 52 children, said Jamil Ahmed, the area’s deputy police chief. He added many appeared weak and thin and that at least two other boats have not been found.
“We believe there may be more boats coming,” Jamil said.
Chris Lewa, director of the nonprofit Arakan Project, which has been monitoring boat departures and arrivals for more than a decade, estimates more than 100,000 men, women and children have boarded ships since mid-2012.
Most are trying to reach Malaysia, but recent regional crackdowns on human trafficking networks have sent brokers and agents into hiding, making it impossible for migrants to disembark – in some cases even after family members have paid $2,000 or more for their release, she said.
Lewa believes up to 7,000 Rohingya and Bangaldeshis are still on small and large boats in the Malacca Strait and nearby international waters.
Tightly confined, and with limited access to food and clean water, their health is deteriorating, she said, adding that dozens of deaths have been reported.
“I’m very concerned about smugglers abandoning boatloads at sea,” said Lewa. Since May 1, police have unearthed two dozens bodies from shallow graves in the mountains of southern Thailand, the apparent victims of smuggling rings, they say.
Meanwhile, Thai police on Monday obtained an arrest warrant for a man they said was a key financer behind the entire Rohingya trafficking racket in the South.
The suspect, the 50th and latest wanted in connection with human labour trafficking in the region, has been identified as fugitive Pajjuban Angchotiphan, or Ko Tong. He is a brother of a high-ranking local politician based in Satun.
