Rescued Burmese in limbo after boat deaths

THE 32 surviving Burmese asylum seekers who were forced to throw nearly 100 dead shipmates overboard as their Australia-bound boat drifted in open seas off Sri Lanka face a state of limbo - the Burmese embassy is so far refusing to claim them as citizens. 

The 31 men and one boy were rescued from their stricken and sinking vessel by the Sri Lankan navy last Saturday, more than 200 nautical miles from land. 

They told their rescuers 98 others on board died of dehydration and starvation during nearly two months adrift and their bodies had been pushed into the sea.

They said they were from a village on the Burma-Bangladesh border and were headed to Australia or Malaysia to claim asylum. 

Several remain in hospital suffering severe dehydration and malnutrition, while others have faced court and are being held in immigration detention. 

But, nearly a week since they were rescued, the Burmese embassy has not yet agreed that the men belong to their country.

An embassy spokesman, Aung Soe Moe, said this week the process of determining the men's nationality was under way. An embassy official told Fairfax Media on Thursday there was no progress to report. 

Sri Lanka Police spokesman Prishantha Jayakody said the men were the responsibility of the Burmese government. ''We have informed the Myanmar embassy for their further action,'' he said. 

But Sri Lankan police sources have said the men are refusing to go back to their home country, saying they were fleeing persecution. The men are believed to be Rohingya, a Muslim community in Burma the United Nations has described as one of the world's most persecuted minorities. 

The Burmese government does not recognise Rohingyas as belonging to the country and refuses to grant them citizenship. 

They are regularly the target of violence, from Burmese army soldiers and vigilante groups, especially in the Rakhine state, near the border with Bangladesh. 

Riots last year between Rohingya and ethnic Rakhine Buddhists left more than 600 people dead and more than 80,000 displaced, according to Rohingya groups. 

The 32 men rescued Saturday are the second group of Burmese asylum seekers saved by Sri Lanka this month. On February 3, the Sri Lankan navy rescued 138 Bangladeshi and Burmese nationals from a sinking wooden boat. 

One of those men told local TV: ''We are Muslims in Burma … we are floating on the sea, 25 days, without eating and without drinking.'' 

The federal Immigration Minister, Brendan O'Connor, said other asylum seeker boats trying to get to Australia were being lost at sea. 

''A lot of people are just disappearing, out of sight, out of mind … It is very hard to put a number on it,'' he said. ''Too many.'' 

Video footage of the rescue of the 32 men showed many close to death. All appeared emaciated. Most could not stand up and the strongest could not walk unaided. Several were unconscious.