Myanmar navy finds 727 'Bengali' on boat in its waters

By Joshua Carroll

YANGON, Myanmar

While Myanmar took part in a regional meet in Bangkok on the Southeast Asian boat people crisis on Friday, its navy said that it had found 727 migrants crammed on a fishing boat in its waters. 

The country's Ministry of Information said in a Facebook post that the "Bengali" would now be towed to an island.

Myanmar does not recognise its Rohingya Muslims as Rohingya, preferring to use the term "Bengali" which suggests that they are from Bangladesh across its western border.

"Altogether 727 people - 608 Bengali men, 74 women and 45 children - in a fishing boat have been arrested as a Myanmar Navy ship found them this morning in the delta," the statement said.

The discovery comes as thousands of boat people - Rohingya and Bangladeshi - remain at sea in the Andaman looking to land on Southeast Asian shores.

Earlier this month, the bodies of more than 30 of the migrants were discovered in southern Thailand, prompting a crackdown that led to smugglers fleeing and boatloads of them turning up on Thai, Indonesian and Malaysian shores.

On Friday, tensions simmered at the opening of the Bangkok meet with the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees asking Myanmar to assume its responsibilities to its Rohingya population.

“Addressing the causes of migration will require full assumption of responsibility by Myanmar toward all its people,” stated Volker Turk.

“Granting citizenship is the ultimate goal. In the interim, there must be removal of restrictions on basic freedom,” he added.

The Myanmar delegate retorted that “finger-pointing" will not help solve the issue.

Photographs accompanying the statement on the Ministry of Information's Facebook page on Friday afternoon showed men with bare chests packed tightly in rows on the stern of the ship.

The ministry did not state where the migrants were from, or where they were headed, but did say that the navy had towed the "Bengali boat people" to a nearby island.

It gave no further details.

On Wednesday, nationalist protesters and Buddhist monks marched through Myanmar’s biggest city to campaign against the Rohingya

 Marchers carried signs reading “We are under attack by terrorist so-called boat people,” as they condemned the United Nations for pressuring Myanmar’s government to accept migrants and help resolve the crisis. 

“Stop blaming Myanmar!” they chanted.

 Many of the thousands on board the boats have for years been fleeing Myanmar by sea to escape persecution from both the authorities and extremist Buddhists.