Update Jan. 24th: Jakarta Globe: Indonesia determined that the 193 Rohingya they rescued will be returned to where they came from since they are economic migrants and not asylum seekers.
….but they are gone, escorted out to sea according to this article in the Earth Times:
Bangkok – A group of 126 Rohingya boat people whom the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) wanted to access to determine whether they needed protection has already been pushed back to sea by Thai authorities, officials said. “These people have been escorted out of Thailand,” said Thai Foreign Ministry deputy spokesman Thani Thonpakdi.
[…..]
…. the Internal Security Operations Command (ISOC) has now made it clear that the 126 boat people had been pushed out to sea already, said Thani.
The human rights groups must be howling about now.
The Thai government maintains the Rohingya are not refugees that would fall under the UN High Commissioner for Refugees purview anyway.
“From information we have collected, it appears that they are economic migrants,” Faizasyah said.
Faizasyah said the foreign ministry could not involve the UN refugee agency UNHCR because the Myanmar refugees were not believed to be political asylum-seekers.
In light of the public relations nightmare Thailand has gotten into it was pretty stupid of them to take this group of 126 out to sea, not to mention inhumane.
If you are new to this story, go here, to our special category on Rohingya and catch up!