‘25,000 Rohingyas, Bangladeshis boarded boats in 2015

 

The finding came in the latest Irregular Maritime Movements in South-East Asia report, through which the UN refugee agency has been highlighting its concerns about the Bay of Bengal crossings and advocating with governments for urgent action since August last year.

UNHCR staff spoke to several hundred survivors of such journeys during the reporting period. Their accounts signal a shift in how smugglers recruit passengers for the boats.

Based on survivor accounts, UNHCR estimated that 300 people died at sea in the first quarter of 2015 as a result of starvation, dehydration or abuse by boat crews.

The report said the most commonly-described route has boat passengers disembarking in the Ranong area of southern Thailand, followed by a day-long road trip to smugglers' camps towards the border with Malaysia.

Conditions in the smugglers camp are horrific. People are held and abused until their relatives pay for their release. More than half the survivors interviewed by UNHCR since October reported that someone died in the smuggler's camp where they were held. Beatings are common and there are reports of rapes. Those who try to escape, risk being shot.

In Geneva, spokesman Adrian Edwards said: "UNHCR understands that since last October, some smugglers have abandoned onshore camps in Thailand in favour of holding passengers for ransom at sea. Once payment is made, people are taken by fishing or speed boats directly to Malaysia. According to NGO, The Arakan Project, currently several thousand people could be held – and dozens could have already died – in these 'offshore camps'."

Those who eventually made it to Malaysia were in bad shape.

In the first three months of this year, UNHCR Malaysia saw 61 Rohingya arrivals with symptoms of beriberi caused by Vitamin B deficiency. Those who could earn some money in the informal sector had to pay off debts to people who paid for their release, often with high interest rates.

The report release comes soon after UNHCR's office in Thailand learned from the authorities and media reports that more than 30 bodies had been found in graves in smugglers' camps in the southern province of Songkhla, close to the border with Malaysia.

The bodies were said to be of people originating from Myanmar and Bangladesh, who had likely died from illness or abuse. Some of these may well have been people seeking international protection.

"UNHCR welcomes that the Thai police are investigating this and we hope the culprits will be identified and brought to justice. But we are also appalled by these deaths. Smuggling networks by sea from the Bay of Bengal area to Thailand and onwards to Malaysia have become increasingly lucrative for smugglers, and increasingly dangerous for their human cargoes," Edwards said in Geneva.