Thailand to investigate alleged mistreatment of refugees

Thai Government has decided to investigate the charges that illegal immigrants from Burma were dumped at sea in boats with no food and no engines.

According to the reports, as many as 1,000 people, including both Rohingya refugees from Burma and migrants from Bangladesh, were forced back to sea after the Thai Navy intercepted their boats. Migrants who reached the Andaman Islands or Aceh Province in Indonesia said they were detained on a Thai island where they were subjected to brutal treatment, and were then forced to board a barge with their hands tied, the BBC reported.

The Indian coast guard in December rescued about 100 people believed to be from the same group near a remote island chain in the Bay of Bengal, but a search for the remaining 300 was unsuccessful, Indian officials said at the time.

Rights groups say the Rohingya face religious and ethnic persecution from Myanmar’s military regime, forcing thousands of them to take to rickety boats each year to try to escape poverty and oppression.