The Burma Border Guard Police (BGP) handed over 150 rescued Bangladeshi boat-people to the Border Guard Bangladesh (BGB) at the Taungpyo border point after the two agencies held a flag meeting at Dekibania (Burma) on 8 June at around 10:00 am, said a BGB official.
The 150 Bangladeshis had been among the 208 boat-people rescued by the Burmese navy from a traffickers boat in the Bay of Bengal on 21 May.
After being rescued the boat-people were taken to Taungbro temporary refugee camp in Burma. The Burmese authorities claimed that they fed them and supplied them with clothes and medicine whilst they were at the camp. But, according to a local elder who wished to remain anonymous, the authorities forced the local Rohingya population to supply food for the boat-people.
The Bangladesh foreign and home ministries identified 150 of the boat-people as Bangladeshi said Col Mohammad Khalequzzaman, the BGB Sector commander at Cox's Bazar.
The remaining 58. boat-people who were not sent to Bangladesh are believed to be Rohingya said a Border Guard Bangladesh official.
In the latest incident the Burmese navy also seized another boat packed with 734 people (611men, 72 women and 51 children) off the country's southern coast near Leik Island on 29 May. These rescued people were also taken to Taungbro temporary refugee camp on 5 June. Many of them claim to be Bangladeshi and the Bangladeshi authorities are at present trying to work out their true nationalities.
Some 2,500 boat-people are still believed to be drifting in the sea, according to regional migrants' rights bodies.
Edited in English for BNI by Mark Inkey
