The Myanmar military has seized a boat carrying 173 Muslim refugees, officials announced. The boat was found off the coast of Tanintharyi Region, in Myanmar’s southern peninsula. Twenty-two children were among the refugees on board. The refugees identify themselves as Rohingyas, a term not acknowledged officially in Myanmar.
“Our navy found them on a suspicious boat in the sea… The police will proceed according to the law,” military spokesman Tun Tun Nyi told Reuters.
The incident came shortly after State Counsellor Daw Aung San Suu Kyi defended Myanmar before the International Court of Justice against formal charges of genocide against that group. Since military “clearance operations” in 2017, more than 700,000 Rohingya Muslims have fled Myanmar, most simply crossing the border into Bangladesh, but some have been boarding boats to make the perilous journey to friendlier coasts such as Malaysia or Indonesia. It is unclear whether the detained passengers departed from Bangladesh or Myanmar.
The issue of illegal migration by sea predates the current crisis. An estimated 25,000 Muslim refugees crossed the Andaman Sea in 2015, with many dying of exposure or drowning in capsized boats. The situation climaxed with the so-called “boat people” crisis, in which thousands of Rohingya, denied entry at foreign ports but also re-entry into Myanmar, found themselves adrift with no food or water.
