Over 900 migrants rescued as pressure grows over SE Asia crisis

Yahoo – AFP, Nurdin Hasan, 15 May 2015

A group of rescued migrant children at a shelter in the Indonesian fishing

 town of Kuala Langsa, Aceh province, on May 15, 2015 (AFP Photo/Chaideer

Mahyuddin)

About 900 Rohingya and Bangladeshi migrants made it to shore in Indonesia and Thailand Friday, as Myanmar undermined calls for a coordinated response to Southeast Asia's human-trafficking crisis by threatening to boycott a planned summit.

The Indonesian and Malaysian policy of turning away stricken boats filled with Bangladeshis and ethnic Rohingya from Myanmar has been met with outrage, including from Washington and the United Nations.

Activists estimate up to 8,000 migrants may be at sea in Southeast Asia, with horrific tales emerging of passengers abandoned by abusive smugglers, horribly cramped conditions, starvation and death.

In his first public comments on the issue, Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak said he was "very concerned with the plight of migrants" but gave no indication of a policy shift on an issue that has caused regional finger-pointing.

A group of rescued women and children migrants, mostly Rohingya from

 Myanmar and Bangladesh, pictured at a confinement area in the fishing town 

of Kuala Langsa in Aceh province, northern Indonesia on May 15, 2015 

(AFP Photo/Januar)

"We are in contact with all relevant parties, with whom we share the desire to find a solution to this crisis," he said in a statement, without elaborating.

It was not clear whether those "relevant parties" included Myanmar, which faces harsh criticism of its treatment of Rohingya and on Friday snubbed neighbouring Thailand's call for a regional meeting on the problem on May 29.

'We cried for help'

The unfolding humanitarian crisis appears to have been precipitated by a Thai police crackdown that has thrown busy people-smuggling routes into chaos just as a surge of migrants has taken to the sea.

"We are unlikely to attend... we do not accept it if they (Thailand) are inviting us just to ease the pressure they are facing," Myanmar presidential office director Zaw Htay told AFP.

Indonesian police said at least 797 people were rescued Friday by fisherman in Aceh province on the east coast of huge Sumatra island.

Rescued migrants, mostly Rohingya from Myanmar and Bangladesh, gathere

 on arrival at a confinement area in the fishing town of Kuala Langsa in Indonesia's

Aceh province on May 15, 2015 (AFP Photo/Januar)

One overloaded boat was sinking off the coast when local fishermen came to the rescue, picking up migrants as they jumped from the stricken vessel, police said.

Muhammad Amin, a Rohingya, told AFP that the boat had first been turned back by the Indonesian navy towards Malaysian waters, only for the Malaysian navy to direct it back towards Indonesia.

In an increasingly desperate situation -- after nearly two months at sea and the crew having abandoned ship -- he said the Bangladeshis attacked the Rohingya and threw some of them overboard, and he was forced to swim for hours before being rescued.

"As we were swimming, we saw a fishing boat, and we cried for help, then fishermen pulled us one by one from the sea," said the 35-year-old.

'Human ping pong'

Search and rescue officials said it was not immediately clear whether all those rescued had come from the same boat.

Fishermen and National Park officials provide food supplies to Rohingya migrants

 stranded on a boat drifting in Thai waters off the southern island of Koh Lipe 

on May 14, 2015 (AFP Photo/Christophe Archambault)

At least 61 children were ferried to shore by Indonesian fishermen. Nearly 600 migrants were already sheltering in Aceh after managing to get ashore in recent days.

A military spokesman said earlier the navy had prevented a boat carrying migrants from entering Indonesian waters but he later clarified that the boat had been empty, and the navy found migrants in the water nearby and helped them to shore.

In Thailand, the navy discovered 106 Rohingya on an island off the coast of Phang Na province but it was unclear whether their boat had a problem or they had been abandoned, the provincial governor said.

Earlier Friday, a boat carrying about 300 Rohingya left Thailand's waters, a Thai official said, after authorities repaired its engine and provided food.

A Thai official said the passengers -- who wanted to reach Malaysia -- declined offers to come ashore in Thailand, fearing they would be sent back to Myanmar.

They planned instead to make for Indonesia, the official said.

Rohingya migrants on a boat drifting in Thai waters off the southern island of Koh

Lipe in the Andaman sea on May 14, 2015 (AFP Photo/Christophe Archambault)

Regional governments have been roundly chastised for what Human Rights Watch described as a deadly game of "human ping pong" in rejecting migrants.

UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Zeid Ra'ad Al Hussein voiced serious concern, saying he was "appalled" at the migrant boat push-backs "which will inevitably lead to many avoidable deaths."

The Muslim Rohingya flee by the thousands each year to escape state-sanctioned discrimination in Buddhist-majority Myanmar and recent sectarian violence against them.

There are more than a million Rohingya living in Myanmar's western state of Rakhine, many going back generations, but Myanmar insists they are illegal immigrants from Bangladesh.

The Bangladeshis are thought mainly to be economic migrants escaping their country's grinding poverty.

Related Article:

Almost 500 Rohingya rescued off Indonesia: officials

Fears for migrants as S.E. Asia refuses safe haven

Yahoo – AFP, M Jegathesan, 13 May 2015

A Malaysian sailor stands guard as a truck carrying Bangladeshi and Rohingya

 migrants from a temporary detention centre arrives at a naval base in Langkawi, 

on May 13, 2015 (AFP Photo/Manan Vatsyayana)

Malaysia joined Indonesia on Wednesday in vowing to turn back vessels bearing a wave of migrants, drawing warnings that the hardline policy could be a death sentence for boatloads of people at risk of starvation and disease.

As the UN's refugee agency accused regional authorities of playing with lives, more grim accounts emerged from among hundreds of migrants who endured weeks of torment at sea before being dumped by human-traffickers.

Mizanur Rahman, a 14-year-old Bangladeshi boy, said he and a friend spent two agonising months crammed aboard a boat with an estimated 600 other people.

A rescued migrant receives medical 

treatment at a temporary shelter in a 

government sports auditorium in 

Lhoksukon, Indonesia's Aceh 

province, on May 12, 2015 (AFP

Photo/Chaideer Mahyuddin)

They subsisted on a single plate of rice per day, but were given nothing to eat the final two weeks, Rahman told AFP.

He spoke in the northern Indonesian region of Aceh, where the two friends washed up this week after traffickers told them to "swim to shore if we wanted to stay alive".

"We wanted to go to Malaysia, dreaming of a better future of our families. After everything that happened to us, I would now prefer to die here rather than go back home," Rahman said.

Migrant groups are warning that thousands more men, women and children are believed stuck at sea or at risk of abandonment by smugglers since a Thai police crackdown disrupted people-smuggling routes.

Thailand has called for a May 29 regional summit to address what it called an "unprecedented increase" in arrivals of ethnic Rohingya refugees from Myanmar and impoverished Bangladeshi migrants.

But Malaysia -- where more than 1,100 migrants came ashore this week -- said it would turn away boats entering its waters unless they were about to sink.

"The policy has always been to escort them out of Malaysian waters after giving them the necessary provisions" including fuel, water and food, First Admiral Tan Kok Kwee of the Malaysian Maritime Enforcement Agency told AFP.

The Indonesian navy already has turned away at least one vessel packed with hundreds of abandoned migrants.

'Maritime ping-pong'

Vivian Tan, Bangkok-based spokeswoman for the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), said the policy was "really worrying".

"We continue to appeal for countries in the region to share responsibility and avert a humanitarian crisis," she said.

"The first priority should be to save lives and provide humanitarian aid."

A group of rescued mostly Rohingya migrants from Myanmar and Bangladesh,

 rest at a government sports auditorium in Lhoksukon, Indonesia's Aceh 

province, on May 12, 2015 (AFP Photo/Chaideer Mahyuddin)

Joe Lowry, spokesman for the International Organization for Migration (IOM) in Bangkok, said authorities were playing "maritime ping-pong".

"What we want is for governments to allow people to disembark so they can be treated and policy can be worked out later," he said.

Otherwise, "people are going to die in the hundreds and thousands on the sea".

The UNHCR agency says 25,000 people embarked from Bay of Bengal ports in January-March, double last year's rate.

Thousands of them are feared left in the lurch by the crackdown in Thailand, which began after the discovery of dozens of dead migrants in jungle graves earlier this month.

Bangladeshi authorities said they seized a fishing trawler filled with 116 of its nationals in the Bay of Bengal near Myanmar on Tuesday.

"They have been on the boat from 15 days to three months," coastguard station commander Dickson Chowdhury said, adding some had not eaten in a week.

Thousands of Rohingya, a Muslim ethnic group denied citizenship by Buddhist-majority Myanmar, flee annually to escape discrimination and sectarian violence that has targeted them in recent years.

Muhammad Shorif, a 16-year-old Rohingya, fled the squalor of a refugee camp back home in hopes of reaching relatively prosperous Malaysia.

He said he spent a month aboard a smuggling ship jammed with hundreds of others who survived on meagre rations and faced beatings from armed smugglers.

"Six people on our boat died due to illness and hunger, and the captain ordered that their bodies be thrown to the sea," he said, in Aceh.

The IOM has called for search-and-rescue operations to find stricken migrant boats.

The inter-governmental group has also demanded a coordinated and sympathetic response by Europe as the continent grapples with its own migration crisis originating in North Africa.

Almost 500 Rohingya rescued off Indonesia: officials

Yahoo – AFP, 10 May 2015

Migrants from Myanmar and Bangladesh pictured at a shelter in Matang Raya

village in northern Aceh, Indonesia on May 10, 2015 (AFP Photo/Reza Juanda)

Jakarta (AFP) - Rescuers on Sunday brought ashore 469 migrants from Myanmar and Bangladesh after their wooden boat arrived off Aceh in northwest Indonesia, an official said.

"We received a report from fishermen this morning that there were boat people stranded in the waters off north Aceh," Aceh provincial search and rescue chief Budiawan told AFP.

"We despatched teams there and evacuated 469 migrants who are Rohingya from Myanmar and Bangladeshis. There are women and children among them. So far, all of them are safe," he added.

He said the group would be taken to a detention centre in north Aceh district, where police and immigration officials would carry out "further processing" which would include investigating their motives.

Darsa, a disaster management agency official who like many Indonesians goes by one name, told AFP the group had arrived near a beach in north Aceh district early Sunday and were told to swim to shore.

"One of the migrants who could speak Malay told me that their agent had told them they were in Malaysia, and to swim to shore," he said.

"Some of them did. But later they found out from fishermen that they were in Indonesia," he added.

According to the migrant, five boats had departed from Myanmar last week to escape the conflict in their country, Darsa said.

"He said the Muslims were beaten and had hot water poured on them and they just wanted to get out of Myanmar as soon as possible, to anywhere where they could seek refuge," he said.

Buddhist-majority Myanmar views its population of roughly 800,000 Rohingya as illegal Bangladeshi immigrants, and they have been targeted in outbreaks of sectarian violence there in recent years, prompting many to flee.

Migrant women and children from Myanmar and Bangladesh wait at a shelter

 in Matang Raya village in northern Aceh, Indonesia, on May 10, 2015 (AFP 

Photo/Reza Juanda)

Darsa said there were 83 women and 41 children on board. One of the women was pregnant and some of the children were aged under 10.

"There was little food and water on the boat. Some of them were not doing too well and needed medical attention," he said.

Thousands of Muslim Rohingya have braved the dangerous sea crossing from Myanmar to southern Thailand and beyond in recent years.

Many hope to go on to mainly Muslim Malaysia but the migrants have often fallen prey to people-traffickers in Thailand.

The UN considers the Rohingya to be one of the world's most persecuted minorities.

Dutch firm wins Bangladesh coastal protection contract

DutchNews.nl, January 5, 2015

Volkskrant

Dutch civil engineering group Royal HaskoningDHV has won a contract to develop and oversee the construction of a major coastal protection plan in Bangladesh.

The six-year contract has a value of €10.5m and will protect the low-lying country against nature disasters and the impact of climate change.

The total project, which is funded by the World Bank, covers some 1,000 square kilometres.

Related Article:

'Great wall of Jakarta' plan to combat floods

Karachi's defensive mangrove barrier faces triple threat

Yahoo – AFP, Ashraf Khan, 5 Jan 2015

A boat laden with chopped mangroves passes along an inlet close to

the Arabian Sea in Karachi (AFP Photo/Asif Hassan)

Thick mangroves have long protected Karachi, southern Pakistan's sprawling metropolis, from battering by the Arabian Sea, but pollution, badly managed irrigation and years of illegal logging have left this natural barrier in a parlous state.

Experts fear that loss of the natural barrier formed by the mangroves could put the city of nearly 20 million people at greater risk from violent storms and even tsunamis.

Talib Kacchi looks at a destroyed

 mangrove swamp along a beach on the

 Arabian Sea in Karachi (AFP Photo/

Asif Hassan)

Close to Karachi, the mighty Indus river ends its long journey from the Himalayas in the sea.

The river delta is home to the shimmering green mangrove, a delicate ecosystem that thrives in the mingled salt and fresh water.

Fisherman Talib Kacchi, 50, recalled taking shelter from monsoon storms in the mangroves as a young man.

"When there were storms, we would have tied as many as four boats together with the mangroves, and then we would sit, gossip and sing songs," he said.

But the mangrove is a shadow of its former self -- from 600,000 hectares in the early 20th century now barely 130,000 hectares remain, according to marine biologist Mohammad Moazzam Khan.

The rest has fallen victim to illegal loggers, pollution from nearby industry and changes to the river flow caused by irrigation upstream on the agricultural plains of Sindh and Punjab provinces.

The fishermen, who make a livelihood from the fish and shellfish that shelter in the mangroves, have warned about their decline for years.

But a short boat ride from Karachi's Ibrahim Haidri fish harbour finds plenty of locals cutting the mangrove and carrying it away.

A boat laden with chopped mangroves passes along an inlet close

to the Arabian Sea in Karachi (AFP Photo/Asif Hassan)

Some use foliage as fodder for cattle while others scrape a living by selling branches for fuel.

"I sell one bundle for 10 to 20 rupees (10 to 20 cents)," Haji Ibrahim, a frail old man who had just anchored his small boat at the shallow waters of the harbour told AFP.

Cutting the mangroves is illegal but the maximum punishment for cutting the mangroves is a 36,000 rupee ($360) fine, doubled for habitual offenders, and in any case, prosecutions are extremely rare.

Pollution

Karachi is Pakistan's biggest city and economic and industrial heart. The rapid growth of factories has contributed to pollution in the Indus delta.

Near a power plant to the east of the city, the mangroves are dry and withered, robbing fish of their spawning grounds and angering Kamal Shah of the Pakistan Fisherfolk Forum.

"I really cannot understand why you would attack the mangrove. It's stupid -- it's like emptying your neighbour's stomach to fill your own," Shah said.

"If we were in another country, the mangrove would be valued and protected."

A crow sits on a chopped mangrove in

 a mangrove swamp on a beach on the 

Arabian Sea in Karachi (AFP Photo/

Asif Hassan)

As well as dissipating the energy of tropical storms when they hit the coast, the mangrove also provides a line of defence in case of tsunamis.

The Arabian and Eurasian tectonic plates meet at the Makran Trench, off the coast, and the boundary has the potential to create major earthquakes.

An undersea quake in 1945 generated a tsunami that hit Karachi, killing 4,000 people, and a recent UN simulation suggested the city could be wiped out if a big tremor hit again.

"It is a very important ecosystem... it is the first line of defence against cyclones, strong surges, tsunami and other natural calamities," said marine biologist Khan, who works for the WWF wildlife NGO.

But there is some hope. A drive to replant the mangroves in recent years has seen them slowly regain some of the losses.

"It (plantation) is going very well. There are very few areas in the world where the mangroves cover is increasing and Pakistan is one of them," Khan said.

Related Article:

Cultivating oysters to combat coastal erosion in Bangladesh

Bangladesh river ferry capsizes with around 200 people on board

A ferry carrying around 200 passengers has capsized in central Bangladesh. A rescue operation was ongoing and it wasn't immediately clear whether there were any fatalities.

Deutsche Welle, 4 Aug 2014

Workers from the Bangladesh Inland Water Transport Authority, firefighters and soldiers were reported to be involved in the rescue operation on the River Padma, 30 kilometers (18 miles) southwest of the capital, Dhaka.

Local police chief Tofazzal Hossain said that many of the passengers had been rescued and some were thought to have been able to swim to safety. However, many others were feared trapped or drowned.

It wasn't immediately clear what caused the mishap, but the police chief said there may have been a couple of factors involved.

"We have heard that the ferry was overloaded with passengers and the river was rough," Hossain told the AFP news agency.

The number of passengers on board the vessel also wasn't clear, with estimates ranging between 170 and 250.

Ferry accidents are relatively common in Bangladesh, and overloading is often at least partially to blame.

A similar accident occurred in May, when more than 50 people died after a ferry capsized with around 200 people on board.

pfd/kms (AFP, Reuters, AP, dpa)

Related Article:

Disaster turns spotlight on ferry safety in Bangladesh

UN tribunal rules for Bangladesh in maritime border dispute with India

Bangladesh and India have welcomed the decision of a UN tribunal that established a new maritime border, ending a decades-long dispute. It's thought the ruling will allow more economic exploitation of the Bay of Bengal.

Deutsche Welle, 8 July 2014

On Tuesday, the Hague-based Permanent Court of Arbitration (PCA) ruled on the disputed area of the bay of Bengal, awarding the greater share of it to Bangladesh.

In its verdict, binding on both countries, the court awarded 19,467 square kilometers (7,516 square miles), from a total disputed area of 25,602, to India's smaller neighbor.

The ruling was welcomed by India, which said it paved the way for greater economic cooperation between the two countries.

Bangladesh declared the result a "win-win situation for the peoples of Bangladesh and India." The development is expected to open the way for Bangladesh to exploit of undersea resources and further develop its fishing industry.

"We commend India for its willingness to resolve this matter peacefully by legal means and for its acceptance of the tribunal's judgment," Foreign Minister Abul Hassan Mahmood Ali told a news conference on Tuesday.

The ruling means that Bangladesh will once again be eager to open up its waters for foreign companies to explore for hydrocarbons in the resource-rich sea. The maritime dispute is believed to have deterred firms from investing in the "sea blocks" being offered by Bangladesh.

In 2012, Bangladesh resolved a similar sea border dispute that had been a long standing point of contention with neighboring Myanmar, with a ruling made by the International Tribunal on the Law of the Sea in Hamburg.

Bangladesh, with a population of 160 million and strong economic growth, has struggled with energy supplies in recent years.

rc/mkg (AFP, Reuters)

Related Article:

Philippines, Indonesia Sign ‘Model’ Maritime Border Accord

Hundreds missing after ferry sinks in Bangladesh

Deutsche Welle, 15 May 2014

Hundreds of people are missing after a passenger ferry capsized and sank in a storm in central Bangladesh. Police have recovered some bodies, but the death toll is expected to rise.

The M.V. Miraj-4 ferry capsized and sank in high winds and rain on the Meghna river on Thursday. The accident occurred in Munshiganj district, around 50 kilometers (30 miles) south of the capital Dhaka.

More than 200 people were believed to have been aboard the vessel when it sank. At least 12 people were killed, officials said.

Rescue ships were called in and divers from firefighting and civil defense departments dispatched to search for the missing.

"We fear there will be more bodies inside the vessel and we cannot be sure of the number of passengers [on board]," Deputy Commissioner of the Munshiganj district Saiful Hassan Badal told Reuters by telephone from the scene of the accident.

Ferry disasters

The ferry was traveling to the southern district of Shariatpur from Dhaka when it experienced problems during the storm. Some survivors were able to swim ashore, despite strong currents and high waves.

Bangladesh has a history of deadly ferry disasters. Casualties have sometimes extended into the hundreds. Some 150 people were killed in March 2012 when a ferry carrying 200 people was struck by an oil barge and sank.

At least 85 people were killed in 2009 when an overloaded ferry capzsized off Bhola Island in the south of Bangladesh.

dr/ipj (AFP, Reuters, dpa)

Bangladesh dolphins get Sundarbans sanctuaries

BBC News, by Anbarasan Ethirajan, Dhaka, 31 October

The dolphins are among the world's most endangered mammals
(Photo: Rubaiyat Mansur Mowgli)

Related Stories 

• Bangladesh dolphins 'back from dead'
• Asia's dolphins 'under threat'

Bangladesh is declaring three areas in the southern Sundarbans mangrove forest as dolphin sanctuaries to protect freshwater dolphins, officials say.

Conservationists say the mangrove forest is the only place in the world where the Ganges river dolphins and Irrawaddy dolphins are found.

These dolphins are among the world's most endangered mammals.

Fishermen normally do not target them, but the animals get entangled in fishing nets and drown.

They are also threatened by rising salinity levels and pollution.

"We have decided to declare Dhangmari, Chandpai and Dudhmukhi areas of eastern Sundarbans as dolphin sanctuaries so that these mammals can survive in a safe environment," Tapan Kumar Dey, a senior wildlife conservation official, told the BBC.

He said the three water segments were identified as dolphin hotspots by the Wildlife Conservation Society's Bangladesh Cetacean Diversity Project (BCDP), which has been doing research in Bangladesh.

'Clearly demarcated'

Mr Dey said an official notification on establishing the sanctuaries will be issued by the ministry of environment soon.

"The waterways in these areas will be clearly demarcated and there will be signpostings so that local fishermen will not venture into this region for fishing," Mr Dey said.

Environmentalists say the diverse aquatic ecosystem of the Sundarbans support an impressive variety of cetaceans - whales, dolphins and porpoises.

While Ganges river dolphins find safe haven in the upper regions of Sundarbans, Irrawaddy dolphins thrive in the southern parts, which are closer to the Bay of Bengal.

The decision by the forest department coincided with a new survey by the BCDP which, apart from freshwater dolphins, also reported sightings of the finless porpoises and an Indo-Pacific humpback dolphin in western Sundarbans.

These two cetacean species, which are normally found along the coast, migrate upriver in Sundarbans mostly during winter, when the salinity level is high. They go back after fresh water starts flowing into the rivers.

The nine-day survey was conducted in the western part of Sundarbans mangrove forests earlier this month.

"This year we encountered many of them during the recent survey, soon after the rains when the salinity level is low. Their presence in this region at this time may be an indication of the rising salinity level," Rubaiyat Mansur Mowgli, principal researcher of the BCDP said.

"Our preliminary results indicate that there is a high density of dolphin population in western Sundarbans as well and some areas there might also be identified as dolphin hotspots," Mr Mowgli said,

However, he warned that the identification of new dolphin hotspots does not mean the animals are thriving in Sundarbans.

"Declining freshwater supplies and rising sea levels due to global climate change are affecting the dolphin population," Mr Mowgli said.

Two years ago, researchers found that there were nearly 6,000 Irrawaddy dolphins - which are related to orcas or killer whales - in the waterways of Sundarbans mangrove forests and the nearby coastal waters of the Bay of Bengal.