News
Rohingya boat people detained, provided food and other facilities after 16-day ordeal
View(s):By Amadoru Amarajeewa in Trincomalee
A boat carrying more than one hundred Rohingya refugees and crew members was taken into custody by Sri Lankan maritime border authorities off the Mullivaikkal coast in the Northeast on Friday after enduring days of hardships at sea, including deaths and illnesses.
The hungry and weary men, women, and children described their ordeal to the Sri Lankan authorities.
The group, numbering 103 adults including 45 children, is reported to have fled from the Rakhine region in Myanmar, where violence has forced the Rohingya community to flee the area since 2017.
The Rohingya people are stateless, as Myanmar does not recognise them as citizens, even though they have lived in the country for generations.
“We left the country in three boats, two of which broke down. The people in those two boats boarded our boat. On the way back, six of our fellow travellers, four of them children, died. The bodies were thrown into the sea,” one of the refugees said.
They were taken into the custody of the Sri Lanka Navy and later produced before the Trincomalee Acting Magistrate Abdul Salam Zahir, who ordered the Port Police to detain the 103 refugees for illegally entering Sri Lanka and refer them to the Controller General of Immigration and Emigration for appropriate action.
The magistrate issued this order after considering a report submitted to the court by the police for offences under the Immigrants and Emigrants Act.
The trawler’s 12 crew members were remanded till December 31 by the magistrate while the others were moved to a school in the area.
The refugees were subjected to medical examination upon arrival and provided with meals and other necessities. Civil society organisations, including the Aham Human Resource Centre (AHRC) and the Trincomalee District Women’s Network (TDWN), provided food and other facilities for the refugees.
A refugee said he had left his home due to the ongoing internal ‘ethnic conflict’ in Myanmar. “I had to bribe the country’s security forces and flee illegally,” he said. They had no idea where they were headed but wanted to get to safety, he said.
Another refugee said his village was being bombed, forcing him to leave the country in search of safety. Another said communication links with his village had been cut off, and he feared for his life.
During the investigation, one of the refugees said they had been at sea for 16 days since they left Myanmar by boat. The distance across open seas from Myanmar to Sri Lanka is more than 2000 kilometres.
The group had been travelling for days without minimal sanitary facilities. Some of the young children and women were seen to be dehydrated and unable to walk.
Deputy Foreign Minister Arun Hemachandra, who visited the refugees, said they would be taken to the Mirihana Open Detention Centre, which houses foreigners without visas until action is taken in accordance with national and international law.
Plans to move them to Mirihana yesterday were postponed till Monday as Immigration Department officials were required to handle the transfer and needed more time for logistical matters. Pix by Amadoru Amarajeewa
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