A boatload of 129 would-be Rohingya refugees has come ashore in Aceh province of Indonesia, according to AFP news agency.


CONFUSION still surrounds the treatment of boatpeople in Thailand.

Voyagers on the three vessels that arrived within nine days in late January are either being held in custody or deported ''in accordance with the country's immigration law,'' depending on assessments of their backgrounds.

Those who have been deported by Thai authorities, supposedly in conventional fashion, have mysteriously found themselves washed up days later, far away in India.

The Thai Foreign Ministry has brushed aside accusations that the 91 people now being held in the Andaman and Nicobar islands are there because they were ''pushed back'' by the Thai military.

According to the ministry, the illegal immigrants ''attested to be of Myanmar (Burmese) origin and therefore were deported at the border crossing in Ranong province.''

Yet something strange appears to have happened between the deportation back to Myanmar, and the arrival of the group, in some cases close to starvation, days later in the Andaman and Nicobar islands.

These people, who once ''attested to be of Myanmar origin,'' are now Bangladeshi, according to the local Indian authorities, and Rohingya, according to the BBC and its well-placed sources.

Some confusion also continues in Thailand, where 33 voyagers from the third boatload to arrive continued to be held on Phuket, awaiting a visit from a team sent from the Bangkok office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees. Another 35 from the same boat are being held in neighboring Phang Nga province

Both these boatloads are broadly accepted to be would-be Rohingya refugees.

Yet there appears to be a difference in treatment between these two groups from the Phuket landing late on January 31 and the second boatload, still being held in the southern city of Songkhla.

In Songkhla, authorities have put nine boys aged under 15 into special care and separated them from the 57 men.

No such separation has taken place in Phang Nga, where five of the detainees are 15 or younger, or Phuket, where three are 15 or younger. Dozens of others are teenagers.

Meanwhile Foreign Minister Kasit Piromya, in New York for United Nations discussions about the border tension between Thailand and Cambodia, preferred to deflect the Rohingya issue when questioned by reporters, saying only that UNHCR was now involved.

With the men who washed up in India likely to be asked to explain in detail their accusations of mistreatment in Thailand, and with more boats reported to be at sea, the saga of the boatpeople clearly has some distance yet to sail.

The text of the Foreign Ministry press release is as follows:

Illegal migrants are treated in accordance with the law

On 11 February 2011 Mr Thani Thongphakdi, Director-General of the Department of Information and Foreign Ministry Spokesperson, responded to media enquiries concerning news reports alleging that 91 Rohingyas found in India's Andaman and Nicobar Islands were set adrift as follows:

1. From the latest information received, Thai authorities confirmed that they took into custody a group of 91 illegal immigrants found onshore in Trang province and handled their cases in accordance with the country's immigration law. They were well treated and provided with the necessary basic needs in official facilities under the care of the Thai authorities. These individuals subsequently attested to be of Myanmar origin and therefore were deported at the border crossing in Ranong province, which was in line with their wish. Thai authorities have no knowledge as to how this group of people may have travelled onwards after they departed from Thai territory.

2. To base assessment and findings on a one-sided account is unwarranted. Thailand has been providing humanitarian assistance to those in need, in spite of the heavy burden involved, in keeping with our long-standing tradition. This consideration has also been duly applied i the case of illegal immigrants to whom the Kingdom has to apply its immigration law.