// Shamsul Basunia //
Hundreds including 65 Bangladeshi nationals remain
detained in Malaysia after being rescued from near death at sea during the
Asian migration crisis.In total, 390 trafficking victims – 325 Rohingya and 65
Bangladeshis – have spent the past year in detention, despite nominally being
freed from captivity in May 2015, in research Amnesty will be publishing in the
coming weeks.
Their plight drew the world’s attention this time last
year after it was discovered that they had been abandoned by their traffickers
and left to drift at sea on packed trawlers without any food.
Initially, the countries of south-east Asia mostly
refused to rescue them, and they survived on food provided by fishermen in the
area.
Following an international outcry, Indonesia and Malaysia
took in about 2,900 people, mostly Rohingya and Bangladeshis. Several thousand
are believed to have been left at sea.
Of the 1,100 brought to Malaysia, around 50 Rohingya have
been provided with the opportunity to be resettled internationally, and 670
Bangladeshis were sent back home. But nearly 400 remain jailed in Belantik, a
Malaysian detention centre, in what former inmates describe as squalid
conditions.
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