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Thailand starts air search for migrants stranded at sea

Tuesday, 26 May 2015 1:41 PM [ Last Update: Tuesday, 26 May 2015 2:48 PM ]

General Worapong Sanganetra, chief of the Thai Defence Forces, speaks during a press conference at the Thai Armed Forces in its headquarters in the capital, Bangkok, on May 26, 2015. (AFP photo)

Thailand says it has started carrying out air search operations for thousands of migrants thought to still be stranded in the Bay of Bengal and the Andaman Sea.

Authorities in Thailand made the announcement on Tuesday, ahead of a meeting set for May 29 on the regional migrant crisis.

"We have prepared eight aircraft from two units," Thailand’s Air Chief Marshal Jom Rungsawang told reporters.

Rungsawang added that work would be done in close cooperation with ground and sea stations “along the route that is used by migrant boats."

Rohingya migrants collect food supplies dropped by a Thai army helicopter drifting in Thai waters off the southern island of Koh Lipe in the Andaman sea on May 14, 2015. (AFP photo)

Reports say aircraft have begun flying up to 200 nautical miles (370 kilometers) from Thai territory and are expected to focus their search on the waters off the country's southwestern coast.

The United States has also confirmed that it had started running reconnaissance flights off the western coast of Malaysia. Both Washington and Bangkok are concentrating on the Andaman Sea.

General Worapong Sangnetra, Chief of Thailand's Defence Forces, has said that a request by Washington to use Thai bases for flight searches was currently "under consideration."

This comes as at least 3,500 migrants from Bangladesh and Myanmar’s persecuted Rohingya Muslim minority have arrived in Thailand, Malaysia, and Indonesia in recent weeks.

A boat carrying Rohingya migrants is pictured off the coast of Thailand in the Andaman Sea on May 14, 2015. (AFP photo)

The three Asian countries have come under international pressure over their failure to tackle the crisis.

An unknown number of deaths have occurred in boats carrying migrants as recent reports suggest bodies have often been thrown overboard.

Earlier, Malaysian authorities said they found 139 suspected grave sites believed to be linked to migrants. They also found 28 detention camps.

Last week, the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) said at least 3,000 members of the Rohingya Muslim minority were likely to have been stranded in the Andaman Sea.

Reports say thousands of migrants living in poor conditions with many in need of food and drinking water, are believed to be stranded in the Bay of Bengal, the South Asia region for months, with many of them at the mercy of human traffickers.

Rohingya Muslims face harsh discrimination in Myanmar, where they are not recognized by the government as citizens. Myanmar regards the minority as "illegal" migrants even though they have been living in the country for centuries.

SZH/KA

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