Now Rohingya refugees who were rescued off the Indonesian island of Sumatra almost a month ago are talking about inhuman conditions on refugee boats. There were around 300 refugees who were at sea for almost six months, and they tell of how human traffickers threatened to leave them at sea if they did not pay for water and food.
– Women and children starved to death because we had no food, says the Rohingya refugee Uddin to the TV channel CNA.
Uddin was one of nearly 300 Rohingyas found almost a month ago on a rickety boat drifting around on the sea off Ache province in Indonesia. The refugees had been at sea for almost six months on their escape from the camps on the border between Myanmar and Bangladesh.
According to refugees on the boat, at least 30 people must have died in the meantime at sea, most children and women. Now the refugees testify about how they were able to survive so long at sea without necessities on board the boat.
– We had food for five days. That is how long the trip to Malaysia would take, the smugglers told us, says Uddin.
– When the food ran out, the smugglers forced us to pay for the food. They came with fast motorboats where they had water and food that we had to buy. If we did not pay, the smugglers threatened to throw us into the sea and rape the women on board.
New tasks shows that around 800 Rohingya left Bangladesh on a large boat in March before the smugglers then divided the refugees into smaller boats.
The refugees paid more than SEK 20,000 per person to join, but the smugglers did not allow the refugees to leave the boats but pressed them for even more money according to the refugees’ testimony to the Indonesian police.
Nearly a million Muslim Rohingya live in cramped refugee camps in Bangladesh on the border with their homeland Myanmar. The refugee camp has become a lucrative market for human traffickers who promise the refugees a refuge in Malaysia or Indonesia.
Source: ICELAND NEWS