government has launched an inquiry . CNN 's investigation -- based on accounts from tourists , sources in Thailand and a Rohingya refugee who said he was on a boat towed back out to sea -- helps to piece together a picture of survival thwarted by an organized effort not just to repel arriving refugees , but to hold them prisoner on shore , drag them in flimsy boats far out to sea and then abandon them . Watch CNN 's investigation into reports of refugees being set adrift '' Three tourists recently voiced concern to CNN over what they had seen -- and in some cases photographed -- near Thailand 's tourist areas . One tourist provided CNN with photos last week of refugees detained by Thai authorities on a beach near a tourist site , with the refugees prone on the sun-bleached sand while guards stood nearby . `` Whenever someone raised their head or moved , they -LSB- guards -RSB- would strike them with a whip , '' said Australian tourist Andrew Catton . A CNN crew traveled to a remote stretch of the Thai coast four hours north of the tourist island of Phuket to investigate
BANGKOK , Thailand -LRB- CNN -RRB- -- Bedraggled , hungry and dazed , the refugees arrived on the shores of Thailand after fleeing one of the most repressive governments in the world -- the hard-line military regime in Myanmar , also known as Burma . This picture provided to CNN is said to show refugees being towed out to sea by the Thai army . But a CNN investigation has uncovered evidence that for hundreds of Rohingya refugees -- members of a Muslim minority group -- abuse and abandonment at sea were what awaited them in Thailand , at the hands of Thai authorities . Extraordinary photos obtained by CNN from someone directly involved in the Thai operation show refugees on their rickety boats being towed out to sea , cut loose and abandoned . One photo shows the Thai army towing a boatload of some 190 refugees far out to sea . Watch the backstory on the investigation '' For days , accusations have been carried in several regional papers that the Thai army has been systematically towing boat-loads of Rohingya refugees far out to sea and setting them adrift . The army denied it , and the Thai