Ambika Ahuja
Rohingya migrants look out from the window of a police van before being transported to provincial court to hear illegal entry charge at Paknam police station in Ranong province, southwestern Thailand Wednesday, Jan. 28, 2009. A group of 62 barefoot, disheveled Rohingya migrants went before a Thai court Wednesday, pleading not to be sent back to Myanmar where they said they were beaten, whipped, and warned not to return by the junta's soldiers (AP Photo/Apichart Weerawong).
RANONG, Thailand – A Thai court on Wednesday convicted 66 barefoot, disheveled migrants detained at sea of illegally entering the country, raising the prospect they could be sent back to Myanmar despite fears they would be persecuted there.
A Ranong provincial court judge sentenced each defendant to five days in prison after none of them was able to pay a 1,000 baht ($30) fine. Four were brought to the court from the hospital, one carried by two men because his legs were broken.
The Thai navy detained the Rohingya migrants on Monday after their rickety boat was found adrift in the Andaman Sea off Thailand's southwestern coast. The Thai government contends the migrants do not qualify for refugee status, and a police official said they could be expelled after they served their sentence.
"Please kill me here if you are going to send me back," migrant Kamal Hussein begged in an interview with The Associated Press. "If I go back, there is no land, no food, no safety. The (Myanmar) junta hates us." More>>
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