Myanmar returns rescued migrants to Bangladesh

[Jonathan Fairfield]

Myanmar returns rescued migrants to Bangladesh

Thirty-seven Bangladeshi migrants rescued from a boat at sea by Myanmar authorities were handed over to Bangladesh authorities on Friday.

"Bangladesh verified 37 Bangladeshi citizens and confirmed that they are the Bangladeshi nationals," said Lieutenant Colonel Saiful Alam Khandakar, the commanding officer of Border Guard Bangladesh at the port of Cox’s Bazar.

Thousands of people, many of them Bangladeshi or Muslim Rohingya from Myanmar, have taken to the sea in recent months in dangerously crowded boats run by people-traffickers, heading south toward other southeast Asian countries.

The 37 were among 208 migrants whom the Myanmar navy said it rescued from a boat in the Bay of Bengal on May 21.

Read more: http://www.reuters.com/article/2015/06/19/us-southasia-migrant-bangladesh-idUSKBN0OZ1QJ20150619

-- Reuters 2015-06-20