The Indian coastguard has rescued 102 Bangladeshi and Myanmar men from a boat near Little Andaman island 90 kms from Port Blair. It is believed that they were a group of 412 men originally who started six weeks ago on promise of jobs in Thailand and Malaysia.

The Indian News Agency IANS reports that the men were apprehended by the Thai police who then put them on a pontoon (a non-motorized boat) tied to a ship to deport them. But these boys quietly opened the cable and the pontoon started drifting and they got lost and were drifting for 12 days in the Indian Ocean. Seven out of these men died even as the boat was drifting, their bodies were dropped into the sea.

Apparently, many men jumped into the sea hoping to swim ashore but tragically got drowned off the Andaman and Nicobar Islands.

The Times of India website however stated that after 4 weeks of detention, the men were transferred to a non-motorized vessel, with some bags of rice and set adrift off the Thai coast and they drifted for 12 days.

The Indian coastguard has stated that they will continue our search and rescue operation in all the islands. However it is feared that around 305 missing men drowned.

This is a calamity with over 300 men losing their lives. If as a matter of fact the Thai authorities left the men on a non-motorized boat. Aren’t they responsible? Though the men were potential illegal immigrants, do they not have any basic human rights?