Myanmar lands 700 ‘boat people’
Myanmar brought ashore more than 700 "boat people" it had kept at sea for days aboard a seized vessel, as the United States Wednesday called on the country to help solve a migrant crisis by recognizing the rights of its Muslim Rohingya minority, Reuters reports.
The 727 migrants were found drifting in the Andaman Sea Friday in an overloaded fishing boat that was taking on water. Myanmar's navy brought the vessel to the coast of western Rakhine state, where they disembarked Wednesday.
Two migrants who came ashore told Reuters that 200-300 people on the boat were Rohingya, and the remainder Bangladeshis. Myanmar authorities have said they believe most are Bangladeshis.
Authorities separated Bangladeshis from Rohingya, before taking the Bangladeshis away in buses, a Reuters witness said.
The Rohingya were kept inside a warehouse at the landing point, where they were watched over by dozens of police, the witness said. It was unclear if the group was moved later, as journalists were asked to leave the site.
No aid personnel had access to the site at that point, the Reuters witness said. The U.S. called on Myanmar authorities to allow aid agencies access to the migrants.
"We are strongly urging authorities to ensure the full protection and well-being of the migrants and to allow for immediate humanitarian access and assistance, including urgent medical care and adequate accommodation," a U.S. embassy spokesman said.
Women and children from the boat were taken to the same location where another 200 migrants, who came ashore on another boat in May, are being held, Myanmar's Ministry of Foreign Affairs said in a statement Wednesday.
The rest were taken to near the border with Bangladesh, the statement said.
Many of the more than 4,000 migrants who have landed in Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand and Myanmar since the Thai government launched a crackdown on people-smuggling gangs are Rohingya who say they are escaping persecution.