Thai authorities charge stranded boat’s crew

Thai authorities have charged the captain and crew of a boat carrying Rohingya Muslims with assisting illegal immigration after the group was found stranded on a southern Thai island, police said on Wednesday.

The 29 men, 31 women and five children were discovered on Rawi island in Satun province where their boat had beached due to engine trouble, police said on Tuesday.

The boat was discovered early Tuesday in the Tarutao Marine National Park in southern Thailand, some 400 kilometers (250 miles) from the border of Myanmar.

The crew - five Myanmar nationals and the Thai captain - were charged with assisting foreign nationals to enter the country illegally, an offence that can carry a prison term of up to 10 years.

“We have charged the Thai and Myanmar suspects with assisting illegal entry for migrants,” Police General Suchart Thirasawat said.

The Rohingya are being cared for while authorities try to determine if they are victims of human trafficking, he said.

“We have not pressed charges against the Rohingya passengers and are still working to determine whether they are victims or not,” Suchart said.

Many Rohingya Muslims have boarded boats in recent months to try to reach Malaysia, part of what authorities fear could be a new wave of people smuggling by sea after a 2015 crackdown on trafficking.