Bangkok - A group of 126 Rohingya boat people whom the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) wanted to access to determine whether they needed protection has already been pushed back to sea by Thai authorities, officials said. "These people have been escorted out of Thailand," said Thai Foreign Ministry deputy spokesman Thani Thonpakdi.
On Tuesday the UNHCR requested access to 126 Rohingyas, members of a Muslim minority group from the North Arakan State in Myanmar, and said they should be kept in custody in southern Thailand to determine whether they were in need of international protection.
The request was made amid reports that the Thai navy had towed about 1,000 Rohingya boat people out to sea last month and set them adrift on boats without engines or sufficient food and water supplies.
The reports, based on the testimony of Rohinghya survivors rescued by the Indian navy, suggested that as many as 500 of the boat people were still missing and believed drowned.
According to UNHCR sources, some 126 of the pushed-back refugees had been picked up in Thai waters and were under Thai detention, with 80 if them on Sai Daeng island in the Andaman Sea, earlier this week.
The Thai government had waffled over the UNHCR request to interview the 126 refugees, who might have shed light on the alleged atrocities of last month. It was unclear whether the refugees were still in Thailand.
But the Internal Security Operations Command (ISOC) has now made it clear that the 126 boat people had been pushed out to sea already, said Thani.
Thailand's newly appointed government under Prime Minster Abhisit Vejjajiva has come under heavy criticism for the Rohingya incident, which casts doubts on the new government's commitment to human rights and the fair treatment of refugees and illegal migrants, all huge problems for Thailand.
Abhisit has promised to investigate the incident but has assigned ISOC to carry out the probe, which is therefore not expected to be impartial.
Abhisit has also called for a long-term region-wide solution to the Rohingya problem.
Thai Foreign Ministry permanent secretary Veersak Futrakul on Friday met with the ambassadors of Bangladesh, India, Indonesia, Malaysia and Myanmar to seek a region-wide solution to the Rohingya problem.
Myanmar's ruling junta has declared the Rohingyas stateless, denying them citizenship as they are deemed to be Bangladeshis, despite having lived in the Arakan for at least two centuries.
There are an estimated 250,000 Rohingya refugees living in Bangladesh, and an estimated 20,000 working illegally already in Thailand.
Lacking citizenship and job opportunities, the Rohingyas have migrated to Malaysia and Indonesia looking for work, receiving little welcome.
Despite their pathetic status in the region, few Western countries have expressed interest in opening their doors to a Rohingya resettlement programme to date.
Indonesia has taken a similar push-back policy towards the unfortunate boat people.
The Jakarta government has denied requests by the United Nations refugee agency for access to 193 Myanmar boat people stranded in the westernmost province of Aceh, believed to be survivors among the 1,000 Rohingya pushed out to sea by Thai authorities last month.
The Myanmar boat people were found adrift off Sabang island in Aceh province on January 7 and are now being sheltered at the naval base.
"From information we have collected, it appears that they are economic migrants," Faizasyah said.
Faizasyah said the foreign ministry could not involve the UN refugee agency UNHCR because the Myanmar refugees were not believed to be political asylum-seekers.
But he said the International Organization for Migration was involved in the verification of the boat people's status.
The spokesman said the ministry would decide next week on what to do with the boat people.
"Deporting them is an option," he said.
