A group of Rohingya have said they were beaten by traffickers and drank their own urine to stay alive on a perilous four-month journey at sea until their dramatic rescue near the Indonesian coast.
The bedraggled survivors — about 100 in all, mostly women and children — described a high-seas horror story that saw them reduced to throwing the dead overboard as their rickety craft drifted thousands of kilometers toward Malaysia.
Two survivors claimed that people-smugglers paid to transport them had beaten the Rohingya, who were later moved to a new boat and abandoned at sea.
Photo: AP
They were rescued by fishers in Indonesia on Wednesday and pulled to shore by locals the next day, thousands of kilometers south of Bangladesh.
“We suffered so much on that boat,” 50-year-old Rashid Ahmad told reporters at an immigration detention center in Lhokseumawe on Sumatra’s northern coast.
“They tortured us and cut us. One of us even died... There was food at first, but when it was done they [the traffickers] took us onto another boat and then let us float away alone,” he added.
Another survivor, Habibullah, said: “They beat everyone badly. My ear was cut and I was beaten on the head.”
Agence France-Presse could not independently verify the accounts of four members of the Muslim minority group, who said they set off earlier this year near a Rohingya refugee camp in Bangladesh, next to their native Myanmar.
Survivor Ziabur Rahman bin Safirullah, 35, said the group got by on small rations of rice and nuts while relying heavily on rainwater to survive.
“Sometimes we squashed wet clothes and drank the water from them,” he said, adding that those who died were thrown into the sea.
Korima Bibi said at least two people died during the voyage and that some on board resorted to drinking urine to stay alive, as others got sick from the rough seas.
“We didn’t get enough food or water,” the 20-year-old said. “[But] we survived.”
Among the about 100 in the group were 48 women and 35 children. They set off from the Balukhali refugee camp in southern Bangladesh, but were originally from Myanmar’s conflict-torn Rakhine State, according to survivors and an account given to the International Organization for Migration (IOM).
A spokesperson for the group told the IOM that one woman had died on the way, leaving behind her two children.
Another three children, two of them siblings, and a 10-year-old girl were unaccompanied. The group also included a pregnant woman, according to the IOM.
The smugglers were charging each person about US$2,300 to get them to Malaysia, the IOM said.
Indonesia, the world’s biggest Muslim-majority nation, and Malaysia are favored destinations for Rohingya fleeing persecution in mostly Buddhist Myanmar.
Thousands try a perilous escape via smugglers across the sea each year.
About 1,400 Rohingya have been stranded at sea this year — and at least 130 of those have died, according to IOM figures.
Last week, a Malaysian coast guard official said dozens of Rohingya were believed to have died during a months-long journey to that country.
There had originally been more than 300 people on board the boat that was intercepted by authorities this month, with the 269 survivors given temporary shelter.
Indonesia has previously allowed Rohingya to land and many to stay.
However, wary officials have turned them away in the past few months, worried that they could be carrying the COVID-19.
That concern played out in dramatic fashion on a beach in Lhokseumawe on Thursday, when the Rohingya survivors were pulled to shore by locals furious at the refusal of authorities to give them shelter over coronavirus fears.
OPTIMISTIC: A Philippine Air Force spokeswoman said the military believed the crew were safe and were hopeful that they and the jet would be recovered A Philippine Air Force FA-50 jet and its two-person crew are missing after flying in support of ground forces fighting communist rebels in the southern Mindanao region, a military official said yesterday. Philippine Air Force spokeswoman Colonel Consuelo Castillo said the jet was flying “over land” on the way to its target area when it went missing during a “tactical night operation in support of our ground troops.” While she declined to provide mission specifics, Philippine Army spokesman Colonel Louie Dema-ala confirmed that the missing FA-50 was part of a squadron sent “to provide air support” to troops fighting communist rebels in
PROBE: Last week, Romanian prosecutors launched a criminal investigation against presidential candidate Calin Georgescu accusing him of supporting fascist groups Tens of thousands of protesters gathered in Romania’s capital on Saturday in the latest anti-government demonstration by far-right groups after a top court canceled a presidential election in the EU country last year. Protesters converged in front of the government building in Bucharest, waving Romania’s tricolor flags and chanting slogans such as “down with the government” and “thieves.” Many expressed support for Calin Georgescu, who emerged as the frontrunner in December’s canceled election, and demanded they be resumed from the second round. George Simion, the leader of the far-right Alliance for the Unity of Romanians (AUR), which organized the protest,
ECONOMIC DISTORTION? The US commerce secretary’s remarks echoed Elon Musk’s arguments that spending by the government does not create value for the economy US Secretary of Commerce Howard Lutnick on Sunday said that government spending could be separated from GDP reports, in response to questions about whether the spending cuts pushed by Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency could possibly cause an economic downturn. “You know that governments historically have messed with GDP,” Lutnick said on Fox News Channel’s Sunday Morning Futures. “They count government spending as part of GDP. So I’m going to separate those two and make it transparent.” Doing so could potentially complicate or distort a fundamental measure of the US economy’s health. Government spending is traditionally included in the GDP because
Hundreds of people in rainbow colors gathered on Saturday in South Africa’s tourist magnet Cape Town to honor the world’s first openly gay imam, who was killed last month. Muhsin Hendricks, who ran a mosque for marginalized Muslims, was shot dead last month near the southern city of Gqeberha. “I was heartbroken. I think it’s sad especially how far we’ve come, considering how progressive South Africa has been,” attendee Keisha Jensen said. Led by motorcycle riders, the mostly young crowd walked through the streets of the coastal city, some waving placards emblazoned with Hendricks’s image and reading: “#JUSTICEFORMUHSIN.” No arrest
RSS