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By Sea, to Malaysia and Thailand

53,000 went this year, 540 died

Says UNHCR report

Staff Correspondent
An estimated 53,000 people from Bangladesh and Myanmar have voyaged to Malaysia and Thailand this year, says a new report by the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees.
About 1,000 more, especially those from different South Asian countries, have made voyages to Indonesia and Australia, according to the UN organisation's January-November report titled "Irregular Maritime Movements in Southeast Asia" released on Friday.
"The outflow from the Bay of Bengal tends to peak in October, when calmer waters follow the end of the rainy season," says the report prepared by the UNHCR Regional Office.
UNHCR, however, has not specified the number of Bangladeshis among them.
About 21,000 Rohingyas and Bangladeshis only have made these voyages since October this year, a 37-percent increase over the same period last year. About 10 percent of them are believed to be women.
Roughly a third of these people interviewed by the UNHCR in Thailand and Malaysia were under 18 years. Children as young as eight years old are known to have made the journey alone, the UN refugee agency says.
In all, some 120,000 people are believed to have embarked on these voyages through the Bay of Bengal since the start of 2012.
With payments ranging from US$1,600 to US$2,400 for each passenger, smugglers plying this route are believed to have earned nearly US$250 million in the last three years, the report adds.
While the majority of people paid smugglers for the journey, there were people who said they were forced into making the voyages, sometimes at gunpoint, in Myanmar and Bangladesh.
"Conditions on the smugglers' boats were dire. Survivors consistently described overcrowded conditions and daily rations of one sparse meal and one to two cups of water," it says.
People who asked for more food or tried to use the toilet out of turn were beaten by the armed crew on the deck above.
"An estimated 540 people have reportedly died this year at sea from such beatings, starvation or dehydration, and their bodies thrown overboard," the report mentions.
Rohingyas and Bangladeshis who have arrived in Thailand in recent months have been systematically screened by government teams there to assess if they are victims of human trafficking.
"If found to be victims of trafficking, they are transferred to shelters to facilitate their rehabilitation and investigations of suspected smugglers. UNHCR hopes that this screening can be expanded to an assessment of all international protection needs," the report notes.