Crisis escalates as nearly 800 people rescued from boat that was sinking off Indonesian coast

Nearly 800 desperate migrants from Burma and Bangladesh were rescued from a sinking vessel by fishermen off Indonesia’s coast on Friday as the boat people crisis in south-east Asia continued to escalate.

Human Rights Watch condemned Malaysia, Thailand and Indonesia for playing a deadly game of “human ping pong” in refusing to allow more dangerously overladen boats carrying thousands fleeing poverty and persecution to land on their shores.

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As the United Nations warned of a “massive humanitarian disaster”, up to 8,000 migrants were believed to be abandoned at sea by smugglers scared off by Thailand’s recent crackdown on human traffickers.

The vessels are packed with ethnic Muslim Rohingya escaping discrimination and sectarian violence in Buddhist-majority Burma and impoverished economic migrants fleeing Bangladesh.

In an impassioned plea to regional governments on Friday, the International Organisation for Migration, implored: “In the name of humanity, let these migrants land.”

But Burma, which refuses citizenship to the Rohingya, looked likely to snub a regional meeting called by Thailand on 29 May to address the growing crisis.

Reports emerged of horrific scenes on the sinking boat, with 794 on board including 61 children, before it was rescued 30 miles off Indonesia’s coast on Friday after two months at sea.

Passengers said the captain fled by speedboat five days ago after destroying the engine, and fighting between the Rohingya and Bangladeshis broke out as food and water ran out. Dozens died in the fighting or from illness, it was said. Among the dead was the 20-year-old brother of Manu Abudul Salam, 19, a Rohingya. “They thought the captain was from our country, so they attacked us with stick and knives,” she told Associated Press.

“If I had known that the boat journey would be so horrendous, I would rather have just died in Myanmar [Burma],” she sobbed.

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Bangladeshi survivor Saidul Islam, 19, said the vessel was hot and cramped. “We could not stand up. When we asked for water, the captain hit us with wire.”

Another, named Amin, said the captain would shoot dead migrants who asked for food.

The vessel was half under water when found off Aceh province on Thursday with children swimming around it. Six fishing boats ferried the exhausted passengers ashore, where they were taken to a warehouse in Langsa. Eight who were critically ill were taken to hospital.

“They were killing each other, throwing people overboard,” Sunarya, the police chief in Langsa, told AFP. “Because [the boat] was overcapacity, some people had to go and probably they were defending themselves.”

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Rohingya migrants collect supplies dropped by a Thai helicopter as their boat drifts in Thai waters in the Andaman sea. Photograph: Christophe Archambault/AFP/Getty Images

He claimed the passengers had entered Malaysian waters in several boats, but were caught by the Malaysian navy who herded them into one boat and pushed them towards Indonesian waters. Several government agencies were involved in helping the migrants, he said, despite the Indonesian authorities’ previous pledge to turn back boats.

Separately, it was reported that fishermen rescued a smaller boat carrying 47 Rohingya, about 15 miles south of Langsa. A third boat, with 96 on board, was found adrift in neighbouring North Sumatra province.

Meanwhile another boat, carrying about 300 passengers, including many women and children, left Thai waters headed for Indonesia. Passengers wept and begged for food after arriving near the southern Thai island of Koh Lipe on Thursday, telling a boatload of journalists they had spent two months at sea during which time 10 people had been tossed overboard after dying from starvation or illness.

Facebook Twitter Pinterest The UN calls on south-east Asian nations to act as Thailand and Malaysia turn Rohingya migrant boats away

Officials said the passengers did not want to land in Thailand, but to press on towards Indonesia, after Thai authorities repaired the boat’s engine and dropped ready-to-eat food into the nearby sea. “We gave them ready-to-eat meals. They are now out of Thailand territory, they will try to go to Indonesia as it seems they cannot get to Malaysia,” Dejrat Limsiri, governor of the Thai province of Satun, told AFP.

The UN secretary general, Ban Ki-moon, called on south-east Asia to “keep their borders and ports open in order to help the vulnerable people who are in need”, and reminded authorities they were obliged to rescue stricken boats, and to respect an international ban on expelling prospective refugees.

IOM director general, William Lacy Swing, announced $1m in funds towards emergency relief. “Everyone – including governments, commercial shipping, international organisations – must make this an absolute priority,” he said.

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“I appeal to the governments, and all who can help, to find these boats and let the migrants land and get medical treatment. We will assist you in resolving the longer term problems of accommodation, transport home for some and other options, but in the name of humanity, let these migrants land.”

The US state department has demanded that south-east Asian countries “save lives at sea”. US ambassadors in the region are coordinating with UN agencies and governments on ways to help.

An estimated 25,000 Rohingya and Bangladeshis boarded smugglers’ boats in the first three months of this year, during the non-monsoon, almost double than for the same period in 2014, according to a UNHCR report.

In his first public comments on the issue, the Malaysian prime minister, Najib Razak, said he was “very concerned with the plight of the migrants”, but gave no indication of a policy shift.

Burma has indicated it will not take back the migrants unless it can identify them. Despite more than one million Rohingya living in Burma’s Rakhine state, they are not recognised, denied citizenship and are treated as illegal immigrants from Bangladesh. Of the proposed 29 May summit, Burma’s presidential office director Zaw Htay told AFP: “We are unlikely to attend …We do not accept it if they [Thailand] are inviting us just to ease the pressure they are facing.”