Malaysia turns away boats as death stalks weary migrants

Malaysia turned away two vessels carrying around 800 migrants, while one boat turned up Thursday in Thai waters, as critics accused Southeast Asian governments of playing a game of “human ping-pong” with the lives of desperate boat people. Malaysia and Indonesia have vowed to bar ships bearing desperate migrants, which are flooding into Southeast Asia from Myanmar and Bangladesh, triggering warnings that the hardline approach could endanger thousands at sea. Indonesia earlier in the week reported sending away a vessel carrying about 400 migrants. Its fate is not known.

The world will judge these governments by how they treat these most vulnerable men, women and children.

Phil Robertson, deputy Asia director for Human Rights Watch

The U.N. refugee agency and rights groups say thousands of men, women and children are believed stuck out at sea and at risk of starvation and illness after a Thai police crackdown disrupted well-worn people-smuggling routes. Many of the migrants are Rohingya people, who suffer state-sanctioned discrimination and have been targeted by sectarian violence in Buddhist-majority Myanmar.

Asia-Pacific Migrants