About 60 Rohingyas, including five children, hoped to arrive in Malaysia after a long boat trip to flee their country. They eventually ended up on a Thai island. They risk deportation to Burma, where this Muslim minority continues to be persecuted.
The smugglers had led them to believe that they had arrived safely in Malaysia, their final destination. A lie. The group quickly realized this: it had failed on a Thai island far from the coast, Koh Dong, abandoned there by human traffickers. When the police found them, the 59 Rohingyas were starving, they had not eaten anything for several days.
To officers, the refugees said they paid a smuggler $1,200 each to be brought to Malaysia. They had left Burma and Bangladesh aboard three boats with a total of 178 people. But the first two boats were intercepted by Malaysian police. The crew of their boat would then have decided to abandon them on Koh Dong. They risk being deported to Burma.
An emigration route for the Rohingyas
Every year, thousands of Rohingya take to the road and risk their lives to reach Malaysia, via Thailand. In May, the bodies of fourteen Rohingyas, including children, were discovered. They washed up on a beach after fleeing their country.
►Also read: Burma: the Rohingya victims of a “genocide”, according to Washington