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Rohingya migrants want to return Bangladesh accepts 57 boat people
(about 9 hours later)
Illegal migrants who made boat journeys from Bangladesh and Burma to Thailand and were rescued by Indian coastguards say they want to return home. Bangladesh has accepted that at least 57 illegal migrants who made unsuccessful boat journeys to Thailand and Malaysia are its citizens.
More than 300 of these migrants, mostly Rohingya Muslim refugees from Burma living in Bangladesh, are now housed in a jail in the eastern Andamans island. More than 300 people, mostly Rohingya Muslim refugees originally from Burma but now living in Bangladesh, are in a jail in India's Andamans islands.
Thailand is probing reports that troops sent Rohingya people from western Burma back to sea in boats without engines. Thailand is probing reports that troops sent the Rohingyas back to sea in boats without engines and little food.
The Rohingya are stateless and say they face persecution from Burma's regime. The Bangladeshi government says it has received a list of migrants from India.
Officials at the prison in the Andamans told the BBC that the boat people from Bangladesh and Burma are pressing them to inform their families that they have survived the ordeal. Repatriation
Hundreds were rescued off India and Indonesia but hundreds more are still missing. "This will be an ongoing process , so the number of people we agree to take back may go up," Bangladeshi Foreign Secretary Touhid Hussain said.
The Thai army has officially denied forcing any of them to return. "We know the Indian coastguard rescued a few hundred of these people and will be asking us to check their identity. Those of them found to be Bangladesh nationals will be taken back."
'Desperate' But he said those of them who are Rohingya refugees from Burma and had made the journeys from Bangladesh will not be accepted back.
"They are concerned about their families because, in most cases, they are the only earning members. They want their families to know that they have survived and that they should not pay any agent any money for their release," one prison official said. Mr Hussain said Indian and Bangladeshi officials were now working out the most efficient way to repatriate the migrants.
Another official at the camp told the BBC the rescued migrants were desperate to speak to their wives or parents back in Bangladesh just to tell them that they were alive. Those rescued are Rohingya Muslims, originally from Burma's Arakan province but many now settled as refugees in southern Bangladesh. Many have acquired Bangladesh citizenship.
"But we cannot help because we don't have orders, but it would be good if some way is found to let their families know they are alive," he said. Indian officials say they are slowly compiling the identities of the boatpeople who were rescued off the Andaman coast.
The Andaman administration is not yet clear how soon these rescued illegal migrants will be sent back to Bangladesh and Burma. Indian coastguards have rescued more than 300 of the migrants and the Indonesian coastguard has rescued nearly 200 more.
It is also not known whether the Indian government has been in touch with Bangladesh and Burma to send the rescued migrants back. The Thai army has officially denied forcing any of them to return to sea without power or supplies, but survivors say hundreds of migrants are still missing.
But the migrants held at the prison in the Andamans are desperate to return to their families. "Those who survived want their families to know that they are still alive and that they should not pay any agent any money for their release," an Indian official told the BBC.
Some of them reached over telephone by the BBC said some international body should come forward and help in conveying information about them to their families. Meanwhile the United Nations High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR) has demanded access to 126 Rohingyas who are still believed to be in Thai custody.