Thai fishermen convert boats to cash in on human-smuggling

RANONG: The smuggling of Rohingya Muslims fleeing persecution in Myanmar is so lucrative that Thai fishermen are converting their boats to carry humans, police and officials in southern Thailand said.
In recent weeks, thousands of Rohingya, a mostly stateless people, have sailed across the Bay of Bengal to the west coast of Thailand, from where human-smugglers deliver them to neighbouring Malaysia, a Muslim-majority country where they can find jobs.
Some boat operators in Ranong province, which has a large fishing industry, were adapting to profit from the exodus, said Sanya Prakobphol, chief of police in Kapoe district.
"The fishing business isn't so good so the fishermen make their boats people-carrying boats," Sanya said.
"Some converted Ranong boats can carry up to 1,000 people."
Boat operators can earn up to 10,000 baht (RM1,010) per person by ferrying illegal migrants from Myanmar to Thailand, he added.
The Royal Thai Navy said last month that most smuggling and trafficking ships plying the Bay of Bengal were from Thailand. The navy also said it had increased patrols.
According to the Arakan Project, which plots migration across the Bay of Bengal, about 100,000 Rohingya have left Rakhine State since 2012. Violent clashes with ethnic Rakhine Buddhists that year killed hundreds and left 140,000 homeless, most of them Rohingya.
Ranong's provincial capital, which goes by the same name, is a port city just 40 minutes by boat from Myanmar. Migrants have historically formed the backbone of its seafood industry.
Many locals saw nothing wrong with transporting boat people, said Manit Pianthong, chief of Takua Pa district in neighboring Phang Nga province.
"Villagers and fisherman have been living with migrants coming in and out of Thailand for more than 30 years because of our proximity to Myanmar," he said.
"That's why we need to educate them slowly and show them that this is wrong." – AFP