A charity that has rescued thousands of migrants in the Mediterranean and was preparing to do the same in the Andaman Sea has been scuttled by Thai Customs Department bureaucrats.

The Migrant Offshore Aid Station (MOAS) had already stationed one vessel, the MV Phoenix, in the Andaman after receiving approval from the Prime Minister's Office, the Defence Ministry and the Royal Thai Navy.

The Phoenix was to launch two unmanned helicopters to search large areas of the ocean for signs of human trafficking and prevent loss of life. The 40-metre ship would then rescue any migrants in distress and bring them to land, the UK newspaper The Guardian reported this week.

MOAS, run by American entrepreneur Christopher Catrambone and his wife, Regina, has rescued almost 13,000 people in the Mediterranean Sea.

“We cleared it with the ministry of defence, the Royal Thai Navy, the transport ministry and the prime minister’s office,” Mr Catrambone told The Guardian from the communications room on board the Phoenix.

But when the two drones were due to transit through Thailand to the ship, they were blocked by customs for weeks despite guarantees, he said.

“Every single aspect of the process was disrupted,” he said.

The mission had been due to start operations on March 3 to help save Bangladeshi migrants and Burmese Rohingya refugees during the dry season when human traffickers and smugglers take advantage of the calm conditions to make the route to Malaysia, Thailand and Indonesia.

With the rainy season and rough seas starting in May, the delay forced the crew to abandon the mission as the yearly migration ends, Mr Catrambone said.

“We couldn’t wait any more for the drones. It's a matter of the monsoon season starting. We would be wasting our time.

“We did not expect the Thais to have any authority to restrict [the drones],” he said, adding that the equipment would only transit Thailand to the Belize-registered ship.

The plight of migrants in Southeast Asia made worldwide headlines last year following the grisly discovery of dozens of bodies at a detention camp in southern Thailand. That led to a major crackdown by the Thai government on a problem that had been ignored for years, with nearly 100 people now facing trials for human trafficking.

And while many traffickers are now under arrest and others have had to scale back their activities dramatically, Mr Catrambone says that those involved in efforts to rescue trafficking victims still face risks.

He said his team, particularly the Thai partners it worked with to transfer the drones, had been put under surveillance.

“We tried to go along as best we could until all our people were scared away,” he said, adding that a man working for the group in Bangkok said he was followed.

He said the Thai agent working on clearing the drones through Customs suddenly told the charity that she would stop working with them. “Basically she dumped us,” he said. “We don’t know if she was pressured.

“It’s wrong what they did to us. Our paper trail goes back six months. We have dotted our i’s and crossed our t’s. We have done everything.”

Spokesmen for the foreign ministry and prime minister’s office did not respond to requests from The Guardian for comment because of the Songkran holidays.

The drones were due to stream live footage of the search area online. The operation could not continue without the drones, Mr Catrambone said.

“When you’re conducting an operation at sea you have visibility of two nautical miles. A drone can cover 300 square miles around your ship. We’ve proven that model works in the Mediterranean," he said. "You definitely need air assets to operate at sea.”

He said the crew of the MV Phoenix were harassed in Phuket port and that customs in Ranong, to the north, had tried to get them to enter the port.

“They want us in the port but if we are out at sea they can’t really do anything. I have a feeling they are trying to detain the vessel.”

MOAS plans to retry its effort in October when the monsoon season ends.

Source:
courtesy of BANGKOK POST

by Bangkok Post

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