Rohingyas forced to leave Myanmar
Advocacy group Human Rights Watch (HRW) has alleged that some of the thousands of displaced boat people -- many of whom are still stranded at sea -- were forcibly removed from their homes and put on migrant ships.
The agency has collated witness reports from Rohingya Muslims -- a minority which endures persecution in Myanmar -- who say they were forced to leave the country by groups of men armed with knives and guns.
Yasmine, a 13-year-old girl, told HRW that a dozen men came to her home in Rakhine State, home to many Rohingya, and told her she needed to leave Myanmar to join her brother in Malaysia.
"They dragged me to the boat, they had sticks and threatened to beat me," she said. "I screamed, I cried loudly. My parents were weeping, but they couldn't do anything. I went onto the boat with three men. When I got to the big boat... I cannot explain my feeling, I was so scared."
Another, 16-year old Arefa, said that six Rakhine Buddhists, armed with knives and guns, forced her to get on a boat.
"They told me I was leaving Myanmar," she said. After a six-hour journey to a larger vessel she spent two months at sea with 95 other migrants, amid dwindling food supplies and abysmal sanitary conditions, before arriving in Malaysia.
"I don't know what I'll do in Malaysia, I have no money. I miss Myanmar, but I know I cannot go back," she said.
According to the International Organization for Migration (IOM), an estimated 25,000 Southeast Asian migrants took to the seas in the first three months of 2015.
After weeks or even months at sea, they are either dumped in unfamiliar countries like Thailand, with no money, to fend for themselves, or are herded into camps in the jungles of Thailand and Malaysia where they are held captive and further mistreated.
"Survivors describe how they flee persecution in Burma only to fall into the hands of traffickers and extortionists, in many cases witnessing deaths and suffering abuse and hunger," said Brad Adams, Asia director at Human Rights Watch in a statement.
"Interviews with officials and others make clear that these brutal networks, with the complicity of government officials in Burma, Bangladesh, Thailand, and Malaysia, profit from the desperation and misery of some of the world's most persecuted and neglected people."
Thailand is due to host an international meeting on the issue of seaborne migrants in Bangkok tomorrow, where the crisis will top the agenda.
Phil Robertson, deputy director of Human Rights Watch's Asia division, told CNN that the meeting also needs to address the root cause of the Rohingya's plight.
"There needs to be a concerted push on Burma to end discriminatory policies against Rohingya," he said. "People like this are essentially caged up, prisoners in their own land. Given the limitations on their basic ability to survive and support themselves, it's unsurprising that they are lured by people smugglers. [There needs to be an] effective push to end the deprivation that leads them to make these kinds of decisions."
He added that the IOM should play an important role in assessing if the migrants are victims of human trafficking.
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