Günter Nooke, the Federal Government Commissioner for Human Rights Policy and Humanitarian Aid at the Federal Foreign Office, issued the following statement in Berlin today (19 January) regarding reports that Rohingya refugees were set adrift off the Thai coast:

“I was dismayed to hear the reports claiming that hundreds of Rohingya refugees from Myanmar and Bangladesh were seized by the Thai security authorities in Thai waters and then put out again to drift on the high seas in boats without engines. It is said that many of the refugees died as a result or are still missing.

I call on the Thai Government to fully investigate the incidents and to bring the people responsible to justice. The incident also shows that a political solution is urgently needed to the refugee problem in the region.”