The future of 48 illegal Rohingya migrants remains in limbo after 28 confirmed Bangladeshi citizens were deported on Wednesday.

Burmese diplomats interrogated the 48 at the immigration office in Ranong in February last year but there has been no response from the diplomats since, a Foreign Ministry source said yesterday.

The ministry had contacted the Burmese embassy in Bangkok and the Thai embassy in Burma had also asked the Burmese government for the outcome of the interrogation but there had been no reply, the source said.
The Bangladeshi government also talked to them and insisted they were not from Bangladesh, the source said.
They were among 78 Rohingya rounded up by the navy in the Andaman Sea on Jan 25 last year, after having gone for a long period without food and water aboard a fishing boat.

They were charged with entering the country illegally and kept at the immigration office in Ranong before being moved to the detention centre of the Immigration Bureau’s Suan Phlu office in Bangkok. Two of them died in the congested detention camp in Ranong.

Foreign Ministry deputy spokesman Thani Thongpakdi said 28 Rohingya were sent back to Bangladesh on Wednesday.

Surapong Kongchantuek of the Lawyers Council of Thailand, who worked on the issue, yesterday hoped for collaborative gestures from the Burmese government and the Thai government’s active approach to solve the issue of the Rohingya.