They just keep coming. From Phuket Wan:
ALMOST 100 Rohingya boat people arrived on the mainland to the north of Phuket on Sunday, alarming local villagers who called the police immediately.
The Rohingya, all males, were quickly arrested. But they told police that more boatloads are on the way.
Their arrival accentuates the scale of the wave of illegal immigrants coming by sea and poses an urgent security issue for the new Democrat coalition government in Bangkok.
Why are all these Muslim men coming, there are a couple of theories?
Some officials in the Royal Thai Navy have been concerned by the numbers of boat people coming south and called for United Nations intervention.
The mystery is this: why are the Rohingya coming, with only men on board the boats?
Some people believe the voyage south from the horrors of camps in Bangladesh, where children are reported to be dying of starvation, is an endurance test that only reasonably fit young men can survive.
Others speculate that the men are coming with the intention of linking up with Muslims in Thailand’s deep south, where an insurrections claims lives with bombs and assassinations almost every day.
600 Rohingya men have been detained since December 1st and….
In 2008, almost 5000 Rohingya have been apprehended. More are almost certain to come this year.
For more on the Rohingya see our entire category here.