Arakan News Agency
There are growing concerns for the welfare of hundreds of Rohingya migrants on a boat bounced between waters off Thailand, Malaysia and Indonesia that has not been heard from in more than 60 hours.
Around 300 men, women and children were found pleading for help last Thursday on the drifting trawler.
The Thai navy said it had repaired the engine and provided visibly thin passengers with food, water and medicine on both Thursday and Saturday before “escorting” the vessel into international waters.
But the location of the boat is now unknown.
Thai authorities insist the passengers wanted to travel southwards onto Malaysia and say they have had no news of the vessel since around 9pm on Saturday.
Indonesian and Malaysian officials have declined to comment on the status of a vessel which has been subject to what one rights group has coined “maritime ping-pong”.
Chris Lewa of The Arakan Project, a Rohingya rights group that monitors boat crossings, said her team were last in contact with the ship by telephone on Saturday evening.
Since then the phones have gone unanswered.
Ms Lewa said: “They had told us that the men were taking all the food and that the women could not get the food. They were only getting little bits left over. That was the last we heard from them.”
