Langkawi, Malaysia (BBN)-Joynal Abdin says his dream died as soon as he saw the smugglers’ boat just offshore, rolling and pitching on the waves, a dark silhouette against the dawn sky.
It didn’t seem big enough for 20 people, let alone 200,” the 23-year-old Bangladeshi recalls of that January morning, reports The wall Street Journal.
I was filled with fear and started to say my prayers.”
A kick to the waist sent him sprawling and he started to wade out from the beach in Teknaf, on Bangladesh’s southern tip, through chest-deep water to the fishing vessel, along with dozens of other migrants.
It was the starting point in a brutal journey, at sea for weeks with barely any food or water, until his father raised enough money to pay off the smugglers and Mr. Abdin landed here in Malaysia.
Whoever you think you are, you forget it on the boats,” he said.
They will kick, punch and starve it out of you.”
Lured by the promise of sanctuary and well-paid jobs in Malaysia, an estimated 50,000 Bangladeshis and Rohingya Muslims from Myanmar attempt the perilous voyage across the Bay of Bengal and the Andaman Sea every year.
On Friday, more than 1,000 came ashore in Indonesia and Thailand, while thousands more are believed to be adrift in the waters around the Andaman Sea and the Strait of Malacca after smuggler-panicked by a crackdown on people-smuggling in Thailand-jumped ship.
Earlier this week, about 1,600 migrants were rescued by the Malaysian and Indonesian navies, but both countries have announced since then that the boat people aren’t welcome. Political leaders of both countries have said they can’t afford to let illegal migrants flood their shores.
Navies and coast guards in Malaysia, Indonesia and Thailand have turned away boats crammed with refugees attempting to land, drawing criticism from the U.S. and United Nations as well as human rights groups.
The crisis has focused renewed attention on the multimillion-dollar smuggling network that has ferried nearly 250,000 people to Malaysia in the last 10 yea
The criminal enterprise preys on desperate Rohingya Muslims fleeing persecution in Buddhist-majority Myanmar and distressed Bangladeshis trying to escape poverty, natural disasters and chronic political instability in Bangladesh.
The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees estimates that around 25,000 Bangladeshis and Rohingya Muslims from Myanmar boarded smugglers’ trawlers in the first quarter of this year, twice as many in the same period of 2014. Around 300 people have died at sea, according to UNHCR.
In Teknaf, a wind-swept coastal town, a short, wiry 33-year-old is in the business of selling dreams. He says he started as a people-smuggler three years ago-one of many in Teknaf -after making the trip to Malaysia himself and deciding it was more profitable to smuggle other people instead.
Ostensibly a fisherman, he said he initially recruited Rohingya refugees living in Bangladesh but quickly realized Bangladeshis had more money. Soon, three-quarters of his clients were Bangladeshi, he said.
Although several of his neighbors said he was still active, he insisted in an interview that he didn’t work as an agent any more.
I only offer advice,” he said, siitting in the backyard of his tin-roofed house, with a gleaming new Yamaha motorcycle propped up nearby.
I am offering them a way out and to make something of themselves,” he said.
As long as there is a demand, the boats will go to Malaysia.”
He said there aren’t beatings or torture on his three fishing vessels. He declined to talk about how much money he earns, but said, “Everyone makes money in this trade-you have to pay everyone.”
Mr. Abdin, the son of a rice farmer in Chittagong in southern Bangladesh, said a smuggler offered to take him to Malaysia, one of Asia’s wealthier economies, for 100,000 takas ($1,300).
Unemployed and a school dropout, he thought it was a golden opportunity.
Everything changed after he got on the boat. Mr. Abdin said he and around 200 other Bangladeshis and Rohingya Muslims from Myanmar were subjected to strip-searches by the smugglers, who took away money, identity documents and even shoes.
They performed body-cavity searches on people they suspected of concealing mobile phone SIM cards.
There were six armed smugglers on board—one Bangladeshi, two Myanmar nationals and three Thai men, according to Mr. Abdin.
They would kick us if we asked for an extra sip of water,” he recalled. “We survived on a cupful of rice a day.”
The boat arrived off of Thailand after two weeks, but stayed at sea.
They said the Thai border was hot because of military and we couldn’t go ashore,” he said. The boat waited off the coast for 31 days, he said.
I saw dozens of people die from thirst, hunger and beatings.”
There were six armed smugglers on board-one Bangladeshi, two Myanmar nationals and three Thai men, according to Mr. Abdin.
They would kick us if we asked for an extra sip of water,” he recalled. “We survived on a cupful of rice a day.”
The boat arrived off of Thailand after two weeks, but stayed at sea.
They said the Thai border was hot because of military and we couldn’t go ashore,” he said.
The boat waited off the coast for 31 days, he said.
I saw dozens of people die from thirst, hunger and beatings.”