Immigrants seeking asylum from Myanmar.

Migrants from Myanmar looking for asylum from their country have been struggling in the Andaman Sea for over a week now. They have been smuggled with fishing ships however on arrival authorities of Thailand, Indonesia and Malaysia will not accept them. Some have been left at sea without food, water or working engines on their boat.

All of the migrants are members of Myanmar’s Muslim minority, also known as Rohingya, and the reason for their escape is in search of better living conditions since they don’t have any in Myanmar. In their home land they are considered parasites, living on the edge of existence without any lawful rights, usually living in poverty and being tortured by the majority Buddhist locals.

All of the Rohingya are descendants of Muslim traders who came to Myanmar centuries ago. They are not recognized as citizens and now thousands of them are stuck along coasts of nearby countries.

To make things worse officials of the three countries mentioned are sending them around from one naval territory to another. In the last few days ten of them lost their lives due to malnutrition or dehydration and their bodies were thrown to sea. News agencies following the event tried to help people in need any way they could, but this is a huge problem with hundreds of people trying to seek asylum. There have been many women and children on the boats, with some people drinking their own urine just to stay hydrated, while others were covered with blankets trying to protect themselves from the sun. The temperature at sea is 35 degrees Celsius at its lowest making living conditions tough.

Thai authorities started to crackdown on smugglers who were transporting migrants illegally over the past few months. In order to run away from the law most smugglers just left their “cargo” in the open sea or in some cases kept migrants as hostages. The trip itself can be quite harsh for a normal boat with supplies, the journey to Malaysia can weeks to arrive from Myanmar.

Officials of Thailand and Malaysia still can’t come to an agreement on who will accept the migrants to their territory as the crisis continues. The regional police official Major General Puttichat Akhachan said: “We declined them entry to the country but we gave them food and water to adhere to our human rights obligations.”

2,000 people have been saved at sea or found on the beaches of Thailand, but a lot more are still at sea. Many have been given food and water when arriving in Thailand and then sent back to see however not making it very far after due to many boats no longer having working engines or fuel.