Thai PM meets activists over migrant abuse claims

Last Updated: Tue, 20 Jan 2009 09:53:00 +1100

Thailand's Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva has held talks with a number of human rights groups in a bid to reassure them over damaging reports that the Thai navy set hundreds of migrants adrift at sea with little food or water.

Survivors claimed that up to 1,000 members of the Rohingya ethnic group, a Muslim minority from Burma, were towed out to sea by the Thai navy and set adrift after being detained and beaten.

Mr Abhisit met members of the National Human Rights Commission and other rights officials to say that he was investigating the reports, which the Thai navy has denied.

He says he has assigned the minister for defence to look into the matter.

The reports came to light after Indian coast guard officials rescued the refuge seekers, who told them they had been beaten by Thai soldiers and sent to sea with only a few bags of rice.

Hundreds of the refuge seekers have been rescued in waters around India and Indonesia, but hundreds more are feared missing or dead.

Language News