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Bay of Bengal and Andaman Sea Crisis
IOM Revised Appeal – August 2015
Situation Overview
An estimated 58,000 people undertook an irregular and dangerous journey by boat in the Bay of Bengal and Andaman Sea in 2014, joined by a further 25,000 in the first quarter of 2015. They are part of a complex, mixed migratory movement including refugees, stateless people and economic migrants. Unregulated and until recently inconspicuous, the scale of the movement has tripled since 2012 and the abuse of voyagers has grown obscene. Men, women and children risk being starved, constrained, beaten and forcibly separated. Women and girls are particularly at risk of sexual violence.
IOM launched an appeal on May 22 2015, outlining humanitarian assistance to an estimated 10,000 stranded migrants for temporary shelter & non-food items (NFIs), health & nutrition, psychosocial, return assistance and migration management support and coordination. Between May 10 and July 27, 5,498 migrants who had departed from Myanmar and Bangladesh managed to disembark at locations in Bangladesh, Indonesia, Malaysia, Myanmar and Thailand. The Arakan Project has not recorded any new departures since May 2015 and it is not believed that any additional boats are still at sea. The estimated number of affected migrants has been revised downwards from 10,000 to 7,000, due to the likelihood that some of disembarkations may have taken place in locations and areas outside of the scope of national authorities.
Since May 2015 IOM has been providing humanitarian assistance to stranded migrants in Indonesia, Myanmar, Thailand and stands ready to provide assistance to stranded migrants in Malaysia if requested by the Government of Malaysia. As of August 4, in Bangladesh IOM has provided return assistance to a total of 1,380 migrants. IOM also provided food, sleeping mattresses with pillows, T-shirts as well as conducted health screenings, and arranged onward local travel.
