Myanmar migrants on a boat stranded
for a week in the Andaman Sea with no food or water say 10 people have
died, while some are resorting to drinking urine.
The fishing boat, carrying about 350 people of the Muslim Rohingya minority, has been refused entry to Thailand.
Those
on board told the BBC the crew abandoned them and disabled the engine.
They said the bodies of those who had died were thrown overboard.
Indonesia, Malaysia and Thailand have been turning away migrant boats.
'Desperate sight'
Several thousand people are still believed to be stuck in boats off the coasts of Thailand and Malaysia.
Most
are Rohingya Muslims who cannot go back to Myanmar, also known as
Burma, where they are not recognised as citizens of the country and are
regularly persecuted.
The BBC's Jonathan Head reports from
alongside the vessel off the southern coast of Thailand, off Koh Lipe,
that it is a "desperate sight".
He said: "People are calling out to us begging us for food and water.
"There are a lot of women and children on board. This is a very old-looking fishing boat that's completely packed with people.
"We can see there are actually people drinking their own urine from
bottles. We've been throwing them bottles of water - everything we've
got on board."
He said blankets had been tied up to try and provide some shelter from the sun. The average maximum temperature is 34C.
The migrants - including 50 women and 84 children - said they had been at sea for three months.
Their
situation became critical when their crew abandoned them without a
working engine six days ago anchored near the Thai-Malaysian border.
On Wednesday night Thai fishing boats found the boat and it was towed into Malaysian waters.
It was then towed back to Thai waters, our correspondent reports.
A
Thai Navy colonel told him the migrants had intended to reach Malaysia,
and Thailand would give them food, water and medical attention and let
them go on their way.
Our correspondent said that could mean they were rejected again.
Regional
police official Major General Puttichat Akhachan said: "We declined
them entry to the country but we gave them food and water to adhere to
our human rights obligations,"
Phil Robertson, deputy director of
Human Rights Watch's Asia division told the BBC's Newsday: "They're
[Malaysia, Thailand and Indonesia] playing a game of marine ping pong
not wanting to take in the Rohingya.
"We need to see the three
nations working together rescuing these people first, and then sorting
out who's going to take responsibility for them, working with the
international community and others.
"This is an urgent humanitarian crisis and the Thais and others seem to be taking a gentle stroll."
Who are the Rohingyas?
Rohingyas are a distinct, Muslim ethnic group mainly living in Myanmar, which is also known as Burma
Thought to be descended from Muslim traders who settled there more than 1,000 years ago
Also live in Bangladesh, Saudi Arabia and Pakistan
In Myanmar, they are regularly persecuted - subjected to forced labour, have no land rights, and are heavily restricted
In Bangladesh many are also desperately poor, with no documents or job prospects
Myanmar's unwanted people Thailand
has launched a crackdown to disrupt people smuggler networks since the
discovery of dozens of bodies in abandoned camps along regular
trafficking routes.
As many as 8,000 migrants from Bangladesh and
Myanmar are believed by the International Organisation for Migration
(IOM) to be stranded at sea.
People smugglers are reportedly
refusing to land their boats because they do not want to follow their
usual route through Thailand since the government's campaign against
them began.
A senior Thai official told these reporters at Reuters news agency on Wednesday that
Thailand, Malaysia and Indonesia would all continue to turn the boats
away.
Major Gen Sukhondhapatipak said that the three countries had decided "not to receive boat people".
On Sunday and Monday more than 2,000 migrants arrived in Malaysia or Indonesia after being rescued or swimming ashore.
The
journey the migrants take - from Bangladesh or Myanmar through the Bay
of Bengal to Thailand or beyond - takes several weeks. They have been
slowed further by the refugees effectively being held hostage in many
cases by smugglers.
Rohingya Muslims have fled Myanmar in recent
years as violence against them has flared up in Rakhine state and they
have been further marginalised.
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