Thais force migrant workers offshore
Pictured are members of the Burmese Rohingya Muslim minority rescued by Indonesian fishermen off the remote island of Sabang near Banda Aceh last month. Since December, the Thai military, responding to demands to expel Rohingya migrant workers, have sent nine boats, crammed with a total of a thousand people, out to sea without adequate provisions of food and water.
Some refugees were saved. Others have not been so lucky. In December, a boatload of over 400 Rohingya were towed out to sea on an open barge with just four barrels of water and two sacks of rice. When the boat came within sight of the Andaman Islands, 300 tried to swim ashore. They are all still missing, presumed drowned.