New photos of a fishing boat that arrived on Tuesday at Langkawi Island, in Malaysia’s northern state of Kedah, reveal the cramped and squalid living conditions that migrants endured for three months at sea.
Rohingya Muslims and Bangladeshis comprise a majority of the migrants who have been forced to flee from Bangladesh and Myanmar to Malaysia and Indonesia in the wake of a crackdown by the Thai government on human trafficking.
Though Thailand and Malaysia may establish camps to provide refuge for the hundreds of stateless migrants coming ashore, some boats are also being turned away and cast back out to sea. There are still reportedly around 7,000 people currently adrift on similar fishing boats in the Bay of Bengal.