BANGKOK (AFP) – A group of 49 Rohingya migrants travelling by boat from Bangladesh to Malaysia was found on Tuesday near a beach on Thailand’s popular island of Phuket, police told AFP.
The mostly Muslim Rohingya experience persecution in their predominantly Buddhist homeland of Myanmar, with many fleeing to refugee camps in Bangladesh or risking their lives on perilous sea journeys to try to reach Malaysia or Indonesia through Thailand.
The group was discovered by residents near Phuket’s Ta Chat Chai temple in a “weak and frail” state, according to local media reports.
“The community found 49 Rohingyas and we took them to the police station,” senior police officer Sopit Ruangsri told AFP.
The group told police via a translator that they had left Bangladesh with 75 others in an effort to reach Malaysia, but claimed many were assaulted and died during the journey, Sopit said, without giving further details.
They are now in a temporary shelter under the Thai authorities’ care and would be sent to “a third country”, although officials have not yet specified where.
The police, in collaboration with the interior ministry, have provided food, water and medical aid to the group.
If caught, Rohingya migrants are often sent to detention centres that rights groups say are typically overcrowded and filthy.
