Migrants rescued by Indonesian navy

© chicagotribune.com

Ten thousand of migrants were forced to flee to more welcoming lands every year.

Brilio.net/en - About 2000 migrants have been rescued by the Indonesian navy after being obviously abandoned by their smugglers. Some were from Bangaldesh and others yet from Myanmar, namely a part of the Rohingyas Muslim minority, and considered by the United Nations as one of the most persecuted community in the world.

So far, 4 vessels have been discovered. One of the boats were found in the not deep waters off the coast of the touristic island of Langkawi in Malaysia, while another one was found drifting north of Sumatra island in the Aceh region, and it seems quite likely that there is still more to be found. The authorities from Indonesia and Malaysia fear a new influx in the coming days.

Those migrants seem to be the indirect victims of the new political shift in Thailand, their port of embarkation, who decided to repress underground human traffic, after the discovery of mass grave containing several corpses in the middle of the jungle.

Ten thousand of migrants were forced to flee to more welcoming lands every year and in order to do so, need to pass through the South of Thailand before hopefully getting on to Australia or Malaysia. The destination of the other boats remains unknown, however it seems like there was no destination at all, since the captain planed on abandoning the ship from the beginning.

Some of the migrants stepped ashore on predominantly Muslim Indonesia, and were welcomed warmly by the locals. A young Bangladeshi explained that because the migrants are Muslim too, the inhabitants showed empathy and offered them food, clothes and water. However, all were not as lucky since even though the Indonesian navy brought food and water to the people on the boat, the Government hasnt given any approval so far for the other boats to dock in Indonesia.

This kind of incident is unfortunately not an isolated case, as smugglers abandoning vessels has been seen before and it was probably not the last case in the region, where smuggling and human traffic has become a flourishing business.

(brl/red)