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STORY: GENEVA / ROHINGYA MIGRANT BOAT
TRT: 2:32
SOURCE: UNTV CH
RESTRICTIONS: NONE
LANGUAGE: ENGLISH / NATS
DATELINE: 8 SEPTEMBER 2020, GENEVA, SWITZERLAND
1. Exterior wide shot, Palais des Nations flag alley
2. Wide shot, podium with two speakers in Press Room III
3. SOUNDBITE (English) Babar Baloch, spokesperson for the UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR):
“UNHCR, the UN refugee agency, welcomed the lifesaving disembarkation of nearly 300 Rohingya refugees on the northern coast of Aceh, Indonesia, yesterday early morning. As mentioned, these Rohingya refugees have survived seven months at the sea in desperate conditions.”
4. Med shot, journalist typing on a laptop
5. SOUNDBITE (English) Babar Baloch, spokesperson for the UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR):
“These refugees are telling us that they started their journey from Cox’s Bazar in Bangladesh seven months ago and they have been adrift at the sea.”
6. Med shot, video journalists in Press Room III, Palais des Nations.
7. SOUNDBITE (English) Paul Dillon, spokesperson, IOM (International Organization for Migration):
“This vessel’s been out in the Andaman Sea and at the top of the Strait of Malacca Strait for months, it stretches credulity to believe that people were not aware of its presence. There was re-supply, we understand, so people were talking about it. It’s not a question of a ghost ship that just popped out of nowhere.”
8. Med shot, journalist writing, Press Room III, Palais des Nations.
9. SOUNDBITE (English) Paul Dillon spokesperson, IOM (International Organization for Migration):
“There is re-supply from shore of food, water and the basics. But I mean, clearly whether it’s a small freighter or a very large fishing vessel, people would have been living in very dire conditions, particularly considering length of time, I mean, we are not talking about a couple of weeks, this is seven months now that people have been at sea.”
10. Close up, hands typing on a laptop, Press Room III, Palais des Nations.
11. SOUNDBITE (English) Babar Baloch, spokesperson for the UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR):
“They have been moved from one ship to another, remember on 24 June, 25 June, they were nearly hundred that arrived at the same place in Indonesia and then there were reports of other boats being in the sea.”
12. Med shot, journalist looking at laptop, Press Room III, Palais des Nations.
13. SOUNDBITE (English) Paul Dillon spokesperson, IOM (International Organization for Migration):
“Just reverting back to 2015. I mean the conditions aboard those vessels were absolutely abhorrent, you know, people were being pitched overboard when they died. There was very little food, very little water. In this particular case, we haven’t seen that kind of evidence yet, but we are looking into it, as Babar (Baloch) said earlier there is a lot of medical issues that are being addressed at this time”.
14. Med shot, journalist, Press Room III, Palais des Nations
15. Wide shot, podium with two speakers seated below a large mural
16. Wide shot, journalists in Press Room III, Palais des Nations.
The largest group of Rohingya refugees to reach Indonesia since the Andaman Sea crisis in 2015 is finally receiving assistance after spending months stranded at sea, UN humanitarians said on Tuesday (8 Sep).
According to the UN migration agency IOM, 296 Rohingya – mainly women and children - landed in northern Aceh on Monday morning.
One of the survivors, a 20-year-old woman from Cox’s Bazar in Bangladesh, said that at least 30 people had died on the journey, including a very young child. Media reports indicate that their bodies were thrown overboard, while the UN refugee agency, UNHCR, said that an unknown number were in need of medical attention.
“UNHCR, the UN refugee agency, welcomed the lifesaving disembarkation of nearly 300 Rohingya refugees on the northern coast of Aceh, Indonesia, yesterday early morning,” spokesperson Babar Baloch told journalists in Geneva. “As mentioned, these Rohingya refugees have survived seven months at the sea in desperate conditions.”
He added: “These refugees are telling us that they started their journey from Cox’s Bazar in Bangladesh seven months ago and they have been adrift at the sea.”
In the months leading up to the arrival of the ethnic Rohingya in Indonesia, UN humanitarians have frequently underlined the need to ensure the safe and timely disembarkation of all vulnerable refugees and migrants at sea. UNHCR also highlighted on Monday that their “hazardous ordeal” followed a “collective unwillingness of States to act for more than six months”.
The UN agency noted that a regional agreement known as the Bali Process - which was designed to resolve such crises - had “failed to deliver comprehensive, regional action to predictably save lives through rescue and disembarkation”.
The Bali mechanism was agreed by Southeast Asian States in May 2015 after well over 25,000 people fled Myanmar – and military operations against them - and Bangladesh by boat, leaving thousands stranded at sea.
The latest group of Rohingya refugees had repeatedly tried to disembark “to no avail”, the UN refugee agency said, insisting that inaction from countries over the past six months “has been fatal”.
This was despite the fact that the vessel had “been out in the Andaman Sea and at the top of the Strait of Malacca Strait for months”, said spokesperson Paul Dillon, from the International Organization for Migration (IOM).
“It stretches credulity to believe that people were not aware of its presence,” he said. “There was re-supply, we understand, so people were talking about it. It’s not a question of a ghost ship that just popped out of nowhere.”
UNHCR’s Baloch explained that the refugees had been “moved from one ship to another” after setting out from Cox’s Bazar in February. “Remember, on 24 June, 25 June, they were nearly hundred that arrived at the same place in Indonesia and then there were reports of other boats being in the sea,” he added.
IOM said in a statement that those June arrivals were likely part of the same group that reached Aceh on Monday (7 Sep). They had come from “a single mother ship” carrying around 500 passengers, which had set sail for Malaysia seven months ago.
The UN agency said that another boat carrying 269 Rohingya landed in Langkawi, Malaysia, on 8 June.
Reiterating the agency’s appeal for the safe and timely disembarkation of refugees and migrants at sea, IOM’s Paul Dillon highlighted the horrors faced by Rohingya people in the 2015 Andaman Sea crisis.
“Just reverting back to 2015. I mean the conditions aboard those vessels were absolutely abhorrent, you know, people were being pitched overboard when they died,” he said. “There was very little food, very little water. In this particular case, we haven’t seen that kind of evidence yet, but we are looking into it, as (UNHCR spokesperson) Babar (Baloch) said earlier, there is a lot of medical issues that are being addressed at this time”.
