Malaysia picks up 40 Myanmar shipwreck survivors
Malaysia Tuesday took in 40 shipwreck survivors believed to be refugees from Myanmar, ending more than a week of uncertainty for the men who were earlier denied entry by Singapore, The Wall Street Journal reports.
The 40 men—aged between 16 to 45 years old—had been in limbo off Singapore's coast for more than a week aboard the Vietnam-flagged cargo ship Nosco Victory after the Singapore government declined to let the vessel into its waters, despite requests by the vessel's owner—the Northern Shipping Joint Stock Co., or Nosco.
A Malaysian Maritime Enforcement Agency vessel reached the Nosco Victory early Tuesday afternoon to pick up the 40 survivors, Nosco Deputy General Director Nguyen Cong Thanh told The Wall Street Journal. But "we don't know for sure yet what Malaysia will do to the 40 men," he said.
An agency official said its vessel was taking the 40 men to the agency's office in the southern state of Johor.
The men on the Nosco Victory are part of a group of 49 survivors who had been aboard the ill-fated Nagu, which was carrying about 250 people when it sank Dec. 5 after making a port call in Myanmar's western Rakhine province, according to the Indian coast guard. The Rakhine region has been embroiled in violence in recent months that has left tens of thousands of minority Muslim Rohingya people homeless.
The nine other survivors are currently aboard the Liberia-flagged container ship X-Press Hoogly, which was also denied entry by Singapore port authorities last week. The X-Press Hoogly, owned by Hamburg-based shipper Hammonia Reederei, remains anchored off Singapore's coast Tuesday, but it isn't immediately known if Malaysia will accept the nine men.
It isn't clear whether the survivors are Rohingya, whose plight has put pressure on Myanmar's government. The 40 men saved by the Nosco Victory say they are Muslims from Myanmar's Rakhine state, according to a manifest seen by The Wall Street Journal and prepared by a marine insurer, which interviewed the survivors.
The nine survivors aboard the X-Press Hoogly are all male, according to Hammonia Reederei. Their identities aren't immediately clear.
