Survivors told Lewa they were rounded up and detained on a remote Thai island in the Andaman sea, where they were bound, beaten, and given little food.
Later, the migrants were herded onto a navy boat that was towing a barge, Lewa said. After several hours at sea, the Thai navy then ordered the migrants to board the barge.
"When the navy asked them to move to the barge, they refused. The navy tried to intimidate them by pointing guns at them. But they still refused to move," Lewa said, recounting her interviews with survivors.
"Then they tied the legs of some of them and threw four overboard. So when the rest of the people saw that, they moved onto the barge," she said.
Survivors said the Thai sailors left them with only two barrels of water and four bags of rice, according to Lewa.