2,000 migrants stranded in boats off Myanmar: UN

Yangon

At least 2,000 migrants stalked by hunger and violence have been trapped for weeks on boats off Myanmar, the UN said yesterday, as Indonesia called for a regional effort to tackle the crisis.

People-trafficking gangs have either dumped their human cargos from Myanmar and Bangladesh off Southeast Asia's shores or left them stranded at sea since a recent Thai crackdown disrupted the trade's normal routes.

Nearly 3,000 Rohingya from Myanmar and Bangladeshi migrants have made it ashore in Indonesia, Thailand and Malaysia in recent days after being abandoned.

Thousands more victims are believed to be stranded at sea with scant food or water.

International pressure is growing for Southeast Asian nations to open their ports to the vessels rather than reprovisioning them and pushing them back to sea. The United Nations and the US have both called for swift action. 

The focus shifted yesterday to the Bay of Bengal where ships off Myanmar are believed to be packed with Rohingya and Bangladeshis who have yet to sail across the Andaman Sea because of the crackdown.

Vivian Tan, a spokeswoman for the UN's refugee agency the UNHCR, said they had received reports that at least 2,000 migrants had been "stranded on at least five boats near the Myanmar-Bangladesh coasts for more than 40 days".

Reports of "food shortages, dehydration and violence" were a cause of "great concern", she added saying passengers should be allowed to disembark.

But the boats are still controlled by people-traffickers who will only let passengers return to land after they have paid between $180 and $270 each, she added.

Timid diplomacy

Southeast Asian nations have faced criticism for their timid diplomacy, particularly the failure to curb what is seen as Buddhist-majority Myanmar's systematic abuse of its unwanted Rohingya people.

 This has sent masses of the Muslim ethnic minority fleeing abroad.

 Myanmar insists the Rohingya are illegal immigrants from neighbouring Bangladesh, for whom it is not responsible.

 In recent years an increasing number of Bangladeshis have also joined the Rohingya exodus across the Bay of Bengal, seeking to escape grinding poverty in their homeland.