DHAKA: A boat carrying dozens of Rohingya refugees that set sail in February but had been adrift in the Andaman Sea with engine failure has landed on an Indonesian island after a voyage of more than 100 days, a human rights official said on Friday.
The vessel sailed on Feb. 11 from Cox’s Bazar in Bangladesh carrying 90 Rohingya refugees, most of them women and children, with the hope of reaching Malaysia.
But the boat’s engine failed four days after leaving Cox’s Bazar, where refugee camps house hundreds of thousands of Rohingya Muslims who have fled neighboring Myanmar.
“We have learnt that the 81 (refugees) were fine, they landed on Idaman Island in Aceh (Indonesia),” said Chris Lewa, director of the Arakan Project, a group that monitors the Rohingya crisis.
“They are not 100 percent safe there yet. We hope they will not be pushed back,” Lewa told Reuters.
Of the 90 people who set out on the voyage, eight were found dead by Indian Coast Guards who had tracked and later repaired the vessel in February.
Indian authorities provided food and essential supplies to survivors but refused to let them set foot on their shores. Bangladesh, too, denied re-entry to 81 survivors.
Over the last three months, international aid agencies and family members of those onboard have made repeated appeals to India, Bangladesh, Myanmar and Malaysia for information about the fate of the survivors on the boat.
Dwi Prafitria, spokeswoman for the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees in Indonesia, told Reuters that the refugees currently don’t have a place to stay as it awaits coordination with the local government.
Authorities in Indonesia, including local police and immigration, were not immediately available for comment on Friday.
The Rohingya are a minority group, most of whom are denied citizenship by Buddhist-majority Myanmar, which considers them illegal immigrants from Bangladesh.
More than 1 million Rohingya refugees from Myanmar are living in teeming camps in Bangladesh, including tens of thousands who fled after Myanmar’s military conducted a deadly crackdown in 2017.
Human traffickers often lure Rohingya refugees, persuading them to travel on rickety vessels with the promise of work in Southeast Asian countries like Malaysia.
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Rohingya refugee boat lands in Indonesia after 113-day voyage
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Rohingya refugee boat lands in Indonesia after 113-day voyage
- The vessel sailed on Feb. 11 from Cox’s Bazar in Bangladesh carrying 90 Rohingya refugees
- But the boat’s engine failed four days after leaving Cox’s Bazar
US ‘leading the fight’ against Southeast Asian scam compounds, FBI official says
BANGKOK: A senior FBI official said on Tuesday that the United States was “committed to leading the fight” against multi-billion dollar Southeast Asian fraud factories targeting Americans.
Scott Schelble, Deputy Assistant Director of the FBI’s International Operations Division, was speaking at a press briefing after traveling to Thailand, Cambodia, and Vietnam, where he visited several scam centers.
“It is impossible to fully grasp the magnitude of these operations until you see them yourself,” he said, referring to “industrial-scale” Chinese-led fraud factories that have proliferated across the region.
“Criminals should not believe that borders will protect them if they target Americans,” he said. “We know where you are and we are coming for you.”
* Chinese organized crime syndicates are targeting Americans with scams “every day” through “sophisticated, well-resourced criminal enterprises that exploit borders, technology, and vulnerable people to generate enormous profits,” Schelble said.
* The groups are “not bound by laws or geographical borders” and operate with “a degree of impunity because they take advantage of countries’ respective laws,” he said.
* The FBI has deployed agents to work with Thai police on a joint anti-scam taskforce which has disrupted networks, identified victims, and targeted supporting financial infrastructure, Schelble said.
* The FBI has partnered with Cambodian police in the past and hopes to leverage previous success to cooperate on scam compounds, he said, adding that he also had “fruitful discussions” with Vietnam.
* Scam centers are a regional issue and require regional cooperation, Schelble said. “The key is to make each area an inhospitable place for these compounds to operate.”
Scott Schelble, Deputy Assistant Director of the FBI’s International Operations Division, was speaking at a press briefing after traveling to Thailand, Cambodia, and Vietnam, where he visited several scam centers.
“It is impossible to fully grasp the magnitude of these operations until you see them yourself,” he said, referring to “industrial-scale” Chinese-led fraud factories that have proliferated across the region.
“Criminals should not believe that borders will protect them if they target Americans,” he said. “We know where you are and we are coming for you.”
* Chinese organized crime syndicates are targeting Americans with scams “every day” through “sophisticated, well-resourced criminal enterprises that exploit borders, technology, and vulnerable people to generate enormous profits,” Schelble said.
* The groups are “not bound by laws or geographical borders” and operate with “a degree of impunity because they take advantage of countries’ respective laws,” he said.
* The FBI has deployed agents to work with Thai police on a joint anti-scam taskforce which has disrupted networks, identified victims, and targeted supporting financial infrastructure, Schelble said.
* The FBI has partnered with Cambodian police in the past and hopes to leverage previous success to cooperate on scam compounds, he said, adding that he also had “fruitful discussions” with Vietnam.
* Scam centers are a regional issue and require regional cooperation, Schelble said. “The key is to make each area an inhospitable place for these compounds to operate.”
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