KUALA LUMPUR, May 17 — Malaysian maritime authorities refused to tell an activist looking yesterday for migrants stranded at sea if they had seen the boat people, forcing her team to eventually cancel their mission of providing supplies for the Bangladeshi and Rohingya refugees.
Malaysians for Malaysia’s Janice Fredah Ti, who was with two crew members from German media ARD TV on a chartered boat, said they were intercepted by several Malaysian Maritime Enforcement Agency (MMEA) boats at about 5pm yesterday, demanding to know what they were doing out at sea.
“We were truthful to them and told them who we were and then they told us, ‘It’s okay, you can continue doing what you are doing’. The Germans asked if they saw the refugee boat, but he did not want to answer,” Ti said, referring to an MMEA senior officer.
UK paper Daily Mail’s news website Mail Online reported that Malaysian vessels turned away yesterday a boat full of migrants after the Thai navy pushed it back out to sea.
Ti said the team later cancelled their mission at 7.30pm yesterday after a seven-hour search since 12.30pm.
The activist told Malay Mail Online that they went out to sea from Langkawi, all the way up north to Koh Lipe, Thailand, in hopes of finding the Bangladeshi and Rohingya migrants stranded at sea and providing them food and medicine.
“We heard there was another refugee boat in the vicinity of the Thai-Malaysian water border. It was to first assess the situation, to see how we could help but [we] also brought some food and medical supplies,” Ti said.
She said they met with a few Thai fishermen after crossing the Thai border, who said they saw a refugee boat the day before. But Ti’s team was pointed to different directions and they ended up going around in circles, with no refugee boat in sight.
When they went back to Malaysian waters, several Malaysian fishermen said they saw the boat headed south toward Indonesian waters and Ti’s team was soon intercepted by the MMEA.
“How do we now pressure the government to let the people in, instead of us going out there to look for them and also how to pressure the government to give access to the people who have landed? I think so many people are willing to help out but just don’t have access to them,” Ti said.
Thousands of Bangladeshi migrants and Rohingya refugees from Myanmar are adrift in the Andaman Sea after people smugglers abandoned their vessels following a Thai crackdown on human trafficking. Many of the migrants are reportedly thirsty and sick.
National news agency Bernama reported Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak as saying yesterday that Malaysia must not be burdened with the “problem” of Rohingya refugees as it is an issue which needs to be addressed collectively by all Asean countries.
