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Illegal Migrants in Thailand

Barefoot 62 fail to pay fine, land in jail

AP, Ranong
A Thai court yesterday convicted 62 barefoot, disheveled migrants detained at sea of illegally entering the country, raising the prospect they could be deported despite fears they could face persecution or death if sent back to Myanmar.
A Ranong provincial court judge fined each defendant 1,000 baht (S30) a sum that none of them could produce. So he sentenced them to five days in prison.
The Thai navy detained the Rohingya migrants on Monday after their rickety boat was found adrift in the Andaman Sea off Thailand's southwestern coast.
The Thai government contends the
migrants do not qualify for refugee status, and a police official said they would be turned over to immigration police after they served their sentence and could be expelled.
"Have pity on us," migrant Mamoud Hussain said before the ruling at the provincial Ranong Courthouse.
"They'll kill me and my family if I go back."
Hussain, 50, was among 78 migrants on the boat. Four others were hospitalized. Twelve minors were being held separately by immigration police because they are too young to be tried in the court, said Ranong police Col Weerasilp Kwanseng.
The plight of the Rohingyas a stateless, Muslim ethnic group who flee persecution in Myanmar, alse known as Burma was high lighted earlier this montl following accusations tha some of them had beer abused by Thai authorities.
Human rights groups sa) the Thai navy has twice inter cepted boats filled with hun dreds of Rohingyas fron Bangladesh and abandonee them at sea, where hundred: later died.
Thai authorities have repeatedly denied wrongdo ing, insisting they only detair and repatriate people entering the country illegally.
"There is no reasonable ground to believe that these illegal migrants fled from theii country of origin for well-founded fear of being persecuted," the Foreign Ministry said in a statement. Thailand faces an "enormous burden" because of 3 million illegal migrants currently in the country, the ministry said, and "cannot afford to be a country of destination" for illegal aliens.
But the Washington-based group Refugees International has warned that any Rohingya repatriated to Myanmar "is subject to arrest and abuse."
Hussain said his group fled Myanmar about a month ago to escape poverty and persecution, arid that the Myanmar navy intercepted their vessel as it sailed south toward Thailand. He said soldiers from four boats boarded their vessel with wooden and metal rods and beat them.
"They told us there are no Muslims in Burma, and they continued to beat us," he said. The migrants were detained for 10 days and then let go. "They told us not to come back again, or they'll shoot us all."
Tens of thousands of Rohingyas live in camps in Bangladesh, where many have been granted refugee status. Many more brave the seas in search of a better life. One of the most popular migration routes has been by boat frorp Bangladesh or Myanmar to Thailand then overland to Malaysia.
Army Col Manat Kongpan said a Thai navy patrol found the migrants near Surin island in Ranong, 460 kilometres southwest of Bangkok. They were handed over to police custody. Thai police fed the emaciated and haggard migrants, and treated their wounds.