Myanmar rescued more than 200 refugees packed into a small fishing boat http://t.co/Zpd6KGCHw8 pic.twitter.com/OtrWPf2HJo
— New York Post (@nypost) May 22, 2015Photos taken while the ship came ashore depict a chilling scene as the refugees reach out and wait to be pulled from their cramped sailing quarters.
“There are 208 people onboard the vessel, of them 10 is the age of about 14 years and the remaining are aged between 30 and 40,” government spokesman Ye Htut posted on his Facebook page. “They are from Cox’s Bazar, Chittagong and north of Dhaka. They are altogether 219 people including nine crew members and two Bengalis interpreters.”
The “floating coffin” was discovered after Myanmar’s military commander-in-chief announced that some migrants landing in Malaysia and Indonesia were likely pretending to be Rohingya Muslims from Myanmar to receive U.N. assistance and were likely from Bangladesh.
But according to the United Nations, tiny vessels such as these are being filled to the brim with weak, hungry and dehydrated migrants — who are attempting to reach Indonesia and Malaysia. Countless numbers of people have been fleeing persecution recently in the Southwest Asian countries of Myanmar and Bangladesh, citing apartheid-like conditions.
