A story behind Agence France-Presse teamwork found the Rohingya migrant boat from off the coast of Thailand into Bayeun, Aceh Timur district, Aceh province on 2015 ago.
On May 14, 2015 AFP's Christophe Archambault photographed a boat adrift off the coast of Thailand with 400 starving migrants on board. A week later, the vessel reached the coast of Indonesia, where his photographer colleagues were able to put names to the faces captured in his dramatic images.
They were the third boatload of Bangladeshis and Rohingya migrants from Myanmar who managed to approach the Aceh coast without detection by the Indonesian navy. All were rescued by local fishermen, who stepped in to offer solidarity where successive governments turned away.
With the help of a local fisherman who took part in the rescue, it took us about 30 minutes to reach the abandoned vessel, which I immediately realised was the green boat photographed by my colleague Christophe Archambault off the Thai coast.
AFP were the first journalists to board the boat, lying grounded in shallow waters off Aceh’s eastern coast facing the Malacca Strait. Apparently undamaged, it was littered from the cargo hold to the deck with items of clothing, food wrappings and empty water bottles from Thailand and Malaysia. There were empty food bowls on the captain’s cabin and a half-sack of dried chili on the roof deck.
The new arrivals were all weakened by their ordeal, most of them severely malnourished and dehydrated, some unable to walk. They were being tended to by volunteers, local aid groups, government rescuers and social services, and staff from the IOM and UNHCR in an environment with minimal facilities. Residents were arriving to drop off clothes and food donations.
And, How I Found and Managed Them?
When I first saw AFP’s photos of migrants stranded in East Aceh on May 20, I was struck by the close similarities with the green boat captured off Koh Lipe in Christophe’s extraordinary photos. Examining all the details I was certain the people on the boat must be one and the same.
Soon enough I identified two men - Muhammad Ehsan from Bangladesh and Hamid Husen from Myanmar - who were photographed clinging to the boat as they ate supplies recovered at sea. I informed Romy, and that would be the first of our photo combinations.
Let families know they are alive
The people I spoke with told me they were pretty shocked to see the images of their despair. All were very happy for me to photograph them again, as they hoped it could let their families in Bangladesh and Myanmar know they were still alive.
They told me of their hardship at sea, a three-month ordeal without sufficient food or water which claimed the lives of around 100 passengers according to survivors. Many were so desperate with hunger they felt like jumping into the sea.
As for what comes next, the Bangladeshis said they hoped to be sent back home or given jobs in Indonesia. But the stateless Rohingya were holding out in hope a new country would take them in, once Indonesia’s offer of temporary shelter for the year runs out.[]
