104-01-Week One

Migrant boat re-enters Malaysian waters after refusing offer to land: Thai officials

The Royal Thai Navy airdropped food and water to hundreds of desperate Rohingya(羅興亞人) migrants stranded on a stricken boat off southern Thailand -- then fixed the vessel's engine so it could continue on to Malaysian waters.

In the latest developments in the crisis engulfing Southeast Asia, hungry migrants were filmed jumping from the boat into the water early Friday to recover the provisions dropped from a Thai military helicopter.

Meanwhile, the International Organization for Migration (IOM)(國際移民組織) said it had dispatched medical teams in response to a request from the Indonesian government after two more vessels containing hundreds of Rohingya migrants made landfall in Aceh.

The larger vessel had about 700 people aboard, including many women and children, and the smaller one about 50, according to Jeff Labovitz, Bangkok-based spokesman for the IOM. Ten people on board the larger vessel were in critical condition with severe malnutrition and dehydration, but were expected to survive, he said.

The boat in Thai waters, carrying about 300 Rohingya men, women and children, was found floating with a broken engine near the southern Thai island of Lipe, having been abandoned by its captain but with two crew onboard, said the governor of Thailand's Satun Province, Dejrat Simsiri.

The boat then set out on a southwest course and re-entered Malaysian waters, after rejecting an offer from Thai authorities to allow the passengers to come ashore in Thailand, according to Thai government spokesman Colonel Weerachon Sukhontapitak and an international body.

Thailand's deputy government spokesman Major General Sansern Kaewkumnerd said Thai naval officers who inspected the vessels were told the boat intended to continue to a "third country."

"The Thais agreed to allow them to disembark, they said no," said Jeff Labovitz, Bangkok-based spokesman for the International Organization Migration (IOM), which is monitoring the unfolding crisis on Southeast Asian waters.

"That's really important -- the Thais did the right thing here."

Asked why those on board would have turned down the offer to leave the vessel, he said: "I have to assume they don't really understand what's going on."

Malaysia was the migrants' desired destination, he said, and it was also possible that trafficking brokers on board, concerned about avoiding Thai authorities, were calling the shots.

"Thailand is cracking down -- if you're a broker you're going to be interviewed and detained," he said.

Crisis spreads

As a consequence, he said, the "game of ping pong" involving the vessel and other migrant boats was set to continue. Earlier in the week, he said, Malaysian authorities had given the same boat food and water, before turning it around.

Thousands of migrants -- mostly members of Myanmar's persecuted Rohingya minority, and also economic migrants from Bangladesh -- are believed to be stranded aboard rickety traffickers' ships in the busy waters of the Malacca Strait and the Andaman Sea, looking for a safe harbor to take them in.

Rights groups have called on regional governments to mount urgent search and rescue missions to save the imperiled migrants aboard the boats, many of which they say have been abandoned by their captains.

http://edition.cnn.com/2015/05/15/asia/thailand-malaysia-rohingya-refugees/

Structure of the Lead：

who-Rohingya migrants

when-not given

what-The Royal Thai Navy airdropped food and water to hundreds of desperate Rohingya migrants stranded on a stricken boat off southern Thailand.

why-not given

where-Southeast Asia,Malaysian

how-not given

Keywords:

1. desperate: 危及

2. engulf: 吞沒

3. provision: 規定

4. dispatch: 出動；調度

5. malnutrition: 營養不良

6. dehydration: 脫水

7. authorities: 當局

8. ashore: 岸上

9. disembark: 登陸

10. persecute: 迫害