UN notes surge in clandestine migration in Indian Ocean region ‎

More people are risking their lives to cross the Indian Ocean on smuggler’s boats despite the great risks ‎involved, including the prospect of “horrific violence,” the United Nations refugee agency warned on ‎Friday. Speaking at a press briefing in Geneva, William Spindler, a spokesperson for the Office of the ‎UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), told reporters that an estimated 54,000 people had ‎undertaken irregular maritime journeys in the Southeast Asian region of the Indian Ocean, including ‎some 53,000 people leaving from the Bay of Bengal towards Thailand and Malaysia.  According to ‎UNHCR, in fact, an estimated total of 120,000 people are believed to have embarked on these ‎clandestine journeys across the Bay of Bengal since the beginning of 2012, with payments ranging from ‎‎$1,600 to $2,400 per passenger. As a result of the frequency and cost of the journey, smugglers have ‎managed to generate nearly $250 million in revenue in the last three years alone.  “The outflow from the ‎Bay of Bengal tended to peak in October, when calmer waters followed the end of the rainy season,” ‎Spindler explained..”  ‎

The UNHCR spokesperson noted that “departures this October surged more than in previous years,” ‎adding that some 21,000 Rohingya and Bangladeshis had set sail since then – a 37 per cent increase ‎over the same period last year.  About 10 per cent were believed to be women while approximately a ‎third of arrivals interviewed by UNHCR in Thailand and Malaysia were minors under the age of 18.   ‎Spindler explain the surge was due to current conditions in Myanmar where ethnic tensions and conflict ‎could be driving Rohingya, an ethnic minority group, to leave the country.‎  (Source: UN)