There are many illegal migrants from Bangladesh and Burma who set sail in order to find work. The BBC has found evidence to suggest that the Thai authorities are detaining these illegal migrants and ‘forcing them back out to sea in boats without engines’. Soldiers send the migrants back out to sea without enough food and water on board.

Recently over 500 migrants were found suffering from acute dehydration. They are currently recovering in India’s Andaman Islands and in Aceh, Indonesia. Indian coast guards have been playing a central role in saving migrants from starvation and dehydration. However there are still hundreds missing.

One survivor has described his experience at the hands of the Thai authorities in the following way. They ‘tied up our hands and then put us in boats without engines. These were towed into the high sea by motorised boats and left to drift...The Thai soldiers clearly wanted us to die on the boats’. This particular man had to be rescued by Indian coastguards off the coast of Little Andamans after drifting for twelve days.

In a separate incident, eight people from Burma sailed to the Thai coast, only to be sent back out to sea by the Thai authorities. This resulted in the death of four men on board. The deaths were not only due to acute dehydration and starvation, but also the cause of desperation: some victims felt too weak to carry on and silently jumped into the sea.

Human rights campaigners have labelled Thailand’s response to this new ‘wave’ of illegal migration as ‘inhuman and brutal’.