Missing migrant boat found as two countries offer shelter

The BBC’s Jonathan Head found one boat off Thailand (Thursday 14 May): “This is just the most extraordinary scene”

Migrants found by the BBC last week drifting off the coast of Thailand have been rescued by Indonesian fishermen.

A BBC reporter who reached the boat says it is filthy and insect infested. The engine broke down last week.

In a significant change, Malaysia and Indonesia have agreed to offer temporary shelter to 7,000 migrants stranded in the Andaman Sea.

Nearly 3,000 Bangladeshi and Rohingya migrants have come to shore in recent weeks, but many have been turned away.

Malaysia’s Foreign Minister Anifah Aman announced the change after emergency talks in Kuala Lumpur with his Indonesian and Thai counterparts on the growing humanitarian crisis.

The migrant boat which arrived off Indonesia’s northern Aceh province on Wednesday, was first spotted drifting last Thursday.

Those on board told the BBC’s Jonathan Head at the time that they had been abandoned by people-smugglers and were running out of food and water. They said 10 people on board had already died.

The Thai navy gave them food and water and later fixed the boat’s engine and towed them out to sea. Contact was then lost with the boat.

The migrants say they were towed out to sea three times by the Thai and Malaysian navies and described how the Malaysian authorities escorted them virtually the whole way to Indonesia warning them never to return.

BBC