LANGKAWI, Malaysia — Abandoned at sea, thousands of Bangladeshis and members of Myanmar's long-persecuted Rohingya Muslim-minority appeared on Wednesday to have no place to go after two Southeast Asian nations refused to offer refuge to boatloads of hungry men, women and children. Smugglers have fled wooden trawlers in recent days as fears grew of a massive regional crackdown on human trafficking syndicates, leaving the migrants to fend for themselves. The United Nations pleaded for countries in the region to keep their borders open and help rescue those stranded, while some parliamentarians slammed the “not-in my-back-yard” attitude. “We won't let any foreign boats come in,” Tan Kok Kwee, first admiral of Malaysia's maritime enforcement agency, said on Tuesday. Unless they're not seaworthy and sinking, he added, the navy will provide “provisions and send them away.” Hours earlier, Indonesia pushed back a boat packed with hundreds of Rohingya and Bangladeshis, saying they were given food, water and directions to Malaysia — their original destination. Southeast Asia is in the grips of a spiraling humanitarian crisis, with about 1,600 migrants landing on the shores of the two Muslim-majority countries that over the years have shown the most sympathy for the Rohingyas' plight. With thousands more believed to be in the busy Malacca Strait and nearby waters — some stranded for more than two months — activists believe many more boats will try to make land in the coming days and weeks. Those aboard one boat several kilometers (miles) off Malaysia's Langkawi Island said after four days without food or water that they needed to be rescued. They reported seeing a patrol boat with flashing lights approach late Tuesday, and then slowly pass them by. Chris Lewa, director of the nonprofit Arakan Project, was on the phone with them when it happened, saying she heard their first hopeful cheers turn into sobs and screams. — AP
