A Malaysia-bound trawler, carrying 116 Bangladeshi passengers – some of whom fell sick from a lack of food, was detained yesterday near Saint Martin’s Island by navy and coast guard patrol boats.
The trawler’s crew, thought to be Myanmar nationals, had abandoned the trawler yesterday morning after being spotted and chased by Bangladeshi border patrol boats, said coast guard Station Commander Dickson Chowdhury.
Talking to the AFP over phone, he said: “There were 116 illegal migrants in the fishing trawler. They are all Bangladeshis.
“They have been on the boat from 15 days to three months. For the last seven days, some of them have not eaten anything other than water. Some were found in emaciated condition.
“There are 16- and 17-year-old boys in the ship as well as a 60-year-old man,” Dickson added.
Coast guard’s press department official Al Imran said the trawler was detained by navy and coast guard patrol boats at 5:30pm. “We learnt that it was heading to Malaysia with the illegal migrants.”
Officials said the migrants had come from all over Bangladesh for the journey to Malaysia in search of a better life.
The discovery comes after nearly 2,000 boat people from Myanmar and Bangladesh were rescued or had swum to shore in Malaysia and Indonesia in recent days.
The spate of arrivals comes as Thailand, a key stop on a Southeast Asian people-smuggling route, cracks down following the discovery of mass graves that has laid bare the extent of the thriving trade.
According to the police in Bangladesh, more than 3,000 people have been rescued over the past five years from Cox’s Bazaar and Chittagong city from the hands of traffickers.