CHILDREN as young as 12 are among the would-be refugees now being held in cells on Phuket and in Phang Nga by Immigration officials.

Phuketwan first spoke to the Rohingya boatpeople on February 1 after they arrived on Phuket, and noted their youthful appearance.

Today we publish for the first time a list of the names of those being held on Phuket and in Phang Nga. Publication of the 68 names will enable their families to know they are safe in Thailand.

The boatpeople, desperate, hungry and exhausted after a long voyage south, landed on Phuket in darkness on the barely seaworthy boat the previous night, January 31. They came ashore at Laem Ka beach, next to the luxurious Evason Six Senses Resort, and separated into two groups.

Soon after daybreak, the first group was apprehended in the southern Phuket district of Rawai and the second group emerged from hiding at a construction site nearby that afternoon.

Police kept them in those two groups, and subsequently so have Immigration officials.

At Songkla, the city in southern Thailand where another 67 Rohingya are being held, nine boys aged 15 or under have been take into care and separated from the men.

On Phuket and in Phang Nga, children whose ages are listed as between 12 and 17 are still among the adults in the two groups.

Immigration officials have kept the two groups as they were on the day the Rohingya were arrested, with 35 being transferred to Phang Nga from Phuket because the Phuket cells were not built to cope with 68 prisoners.

Phuketwan has since been told that Phang Nga Immigration officials sought to have the group deported to Burma through the Mae Sot border crossing, and also have complained about the high cost of feeding the men and boys two meals a day.

A team from the Bangkok office of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees is due to begin interviewing the boatpeople in Songkhla next week and will then move on to Phuket and Phang Nga to interview those who landed on Phuket.

The Rohingya are not accepted as refugees in Thailand. One group that was apprehended two years ago - soon after Phuketwan revealed that boatloads of would-be refugees were being secretly ''pushed back,'' sometimes to their deaths at sea, by the Thai military - is still being held in detention in Bangkok.

Mystery now surrounds the whereabouts of the 91 boatpeople who were in the first of three boats to arrive in Thailand in the space of nine days, carrying a total of 226 people.

Despite all the dangers, the men risk their lives because the Rohingyas' existence as poor, stateless and unwanted people in northern Burma and Bangladesh is constantly under threat.

The Rohingya being held in Phang Nga:

1. Mortora, 15
2. O-Limmot, 23
3. Mamonlo, 20
4. Salerm, 15
5. A-Lumongla, 20
6. Duban, 14
7. Nudama, 19
8. Mohomut, 18
9. Choobut, 20
10. Tuehad, 21
11. Au-Sall, 12
12. Ab-dullchuku, 18
13. Ab-dull-luhim, 16
14. Kaman, 15
15. A-dull-laman, 28
16. Nonmuhamut, 19
17. Lawfit, 35
18. Sofi, 16
19. A-deesoha, 34
20. Aubdullsalam, 45
21. Noot-Asom, 16
22. Adfa, 20
23. Soni, 25
24. Sosi, 50
25. Ropik, 30
26. Elird, 25
27. Dinmuhamut, 18
28. Amen, 20
29. Fuson, 18
30. Soyak, 18
31. Abdull-Dullli, 30
32. Adullsalam, 30
33. Nutwasa, 12
34. Rositdallla, 35
35. Rollfit, 30

The Rohingya being held on Phuket:

1. Pasula, 20
2. Muhamutlufit, 15
3. Chonchuhalam, 20
4. Zube, 19
5. Zalabut, 17
6. Muhamuthussen, 20
7. Muhamutzube, 17
8. Roiboonler, 16
9. Seahunhak, 17
10. Onamean, 24
11. Chaiyadullla,17
12. Nason, 16
13. Fayasonla, 17
14. Zifuaman, 17
15. Muhamutzulaiban, 20
16. Muhamutyasem, 16
17. Muhamutnaseen, 14
18. Muhamutlerfit, 15
19. Chaiyathalam, 20
20. Isdalis, 18
21. Ayamumla, 16
22. Muhutmutamean, 28
23. Muhamutlerfit, 17
24. Muhamut-Elist, 14
25. Kareanmomla, 16
26. Muhamutayob, 17
27. Muhamuteamran, 16
28. Jomeananut, 20
29. Muhamutjaman, 17
30. Zontalamut, 40
31. Soidalam, 21
32. Hasimonla,30
33. Muhammutyasean, 28