|
Marmot Rar Sein (L) and Be Be Asha, 20, who arrived back from a ship, are seen at a refugee camp outside Sittwe, Myanmar May 19, 2015. Scores of Myanmar's minority Rohingya Muslims are paying off people smugglers and returning to the squalid camps they used to live in after being held for months on overcrowded ships that were to take them to Thailand but did not move far from shore. A crackdown on the people-smuggling network in Thailand, usually the first stop en route to Malaysia, has meant that at least three ships loaded with hundreds of Rohingya and impoverished Bangladeshis were staying off the coast of Myanmar, they said. Those who came back said the crews beat them with metal rods and engine chains when they asked for more food. Many were starving, surviving on three cups of water and two handfuls of rice a day for up to three months. Be Be Asha, who is in the eighth month of pregnancy, was saved at the last minute by her husband and women around her after traffickers were about to throw her off the ship when she lost consciousness. She says she has not recovered from the 45-day ordeal and was worried about the unborn baby. (Photo by Soe Zeya Tun/Reuters)
|
