Ten Rohingya men were found floating in the sea near Koh Bulone in Satun’s Langu district on Tuesday morning and another 41 Rohingya were later found on an island in Thung Wa district.
The 10 men were seen by local fishermen and rescued. They were exhausted, supported only by small foam floats, and were believed to have been in the sea for some time. They were taken to shore at Laem Tepan in tambon Pak Nam, where they were handed over to local police and given food and water.
Pol Col Sitthipong Hasrangsi, Langu district police superintendent, said they were placed in the care of the Immigration Bureau and questioned through an interpreter.
Thani Hayeesalae, the Langu district chief, said the Rohingya told officials they had travelled in a small, packed boat from the state of Rakhine in Myanmar and were heading to Indonesia.
They ran into a storm, which set the heavily loaded boat rolling dangerously. The 10 Rohingya claimed they were pushed overboard by fellow Rohingya to lighten the boat, which continued on without them. The 10 men were left floating alone in the ocean, until they were lucky enough to be found by Thai fishermen.
Mr Thani said the authorities were not convinced the men were telling the truth. They also suspected the boat with the other Rohingya may have pulled into a beach somewhere and waited for the storm to clear.
It was suspected the Rohingya had fled from a United Nations refugee camp in Bangladesh, which borders Myanmar on the West, and were travelling to a third country.
The 10 men would be given temporary shelter at the police border patrol unit in the province, where 59 Rohingya found stranded on Koh Dong beach on June 4 were also being accommodated.
The director of the marine and coastal resource conservation centre, Arunee Saengyang, and Satun marine security officials later went on patrol through Thung Wa district, where they found more Rohingya stranded on an island.
The patrol spotted a group of 41 people on Koh Kluai. They were hungry and exhausted. There were 31 men, eight women and two children. They were given food and water and taken aboard and then to shore.
Authorities would investigate whether the 41 people and the10 men rescued from the sea in Langu district were in the same group, whether they were using Satun province as a transit route to a third country and whether they were abandoned by human traffickers.