News Desk :Myanmar rescued two migrant boats in its waters near the border with Bangladesh on Friday morning, bringing 208 migrants to shore, according to agency reports. The rescue came after Myanmar officials met Malaysian and Indonesian foreign ministers, and the US Deputy Secretary of State Antony Blinken, on Thursday to discuss the situation.”All of the 208 on board are from Bangladesh,” Tin Maung Swe, a senior official in the western state of Rakhine told journalists on Friday, repeating Myanmar’s official line that the migrants are from over the border. “Bengalis” is a term often used pejoratively by Myanmar officials to describe the Muslim Rohingya minority, 1.3 million of whom live in the country but are not recognised by as citizens. On Thursday, the foreign ministers of Malaysia and Indonesia – whose countries are destination points for Rohingya fleeing persecution — met Myanmar officials as pressures mount to stem the migrant exodus from its shores. It was the first such rescue by Myanmar which has faced strong criticism for not doing enough to aid those stranded at sea and stem the migrant crisis.Most are Rohingya Muslims fleeing persecution in Myanmar, while others are economic migrants from Bangladesh.The Myanmar government has promised humanitarian assistance to those who have suffered at sea. But different ministers have stressed that only verified Myanmar citizens would be allowed to stay. The Thai-owned boat was guided to shore before dawn on Friday in Maungdaw township — the departure point for many Rohingya boats headed south through the Bay of Bengal. The second vessel, however, was empty, Tin Maung Swe told the journalists. “Necessary medical health care and foods have been provided” to the passengers at a temporary camp in Maungdaw, he said. The BBC’s Jonah Fisher in Yangon said that for several weeks it was clear that at least five traffickers’ boats were in limbo just off the Myanmar coast, unwilling to cross the Andaman Sea – but equally reluctant to let their victims go for free. Meanwhile, more than 3,000 migrants have landed in Malaysia, Indonesia and Thailand in the latest crisis Malaysia also began searching for migrant boats on Friday, a day after Prime Minister Najib Razak announced that they would conduct rescue missions.Malaysia and Indonesia have agreed to stop towing boats out to sea and will provide temporary shelter to those who have landed.Thailand only said it would stop rejecting boats.US military spokesman Blinken called on Myanmar to grant its persecuted Rohingya minority citizenship rights as a way to help reduce the current exodus. “They should have a path to citizenship,” he told reporters in Yangon a day after talks with Myanmar leaders on the crisis, adding “the uncertainty that comes from not having any status is one of the things that may drive people to leave”. Attention turned on Friday to the seas off Southeast Asia’s west coast as Malaysian naval vessels searched for stranded boat people and the US military prepared air patrols to step up its involvement.Thousands of Bangladeshis and Rohingya Muslims from Myanmar are believed to be trapped on crowded boats with little food or water — some after being pushed back by the navies of at least three countries — and the international community has warned that time to save them is running out.In the first official rescue operation since migrants started washing onto Southeast Asia shores earlier this month, four Malaysian navy ships began searching the country’s territorial waters for the boats. Navy chief Abdul Aziz Jaafar said three helicopters and three other ships were on standby.After pushing back several vessels earlier in the month, Malaysia and Indonesia said on Thursday they will provide temporary shelter to the desperate men, women and children if the international community helps resettle them within a year.According to the International Organization for Migration (IOM), about 3,600 refugees and migrants have washed ashore in Malaysia, Indonesia and Thailand (about half Rohingya and the rest from Bangladesh), while the UN refugee agency estimates more than 3,000 others may still be at sea.The US military said it was preparing to send maritime aviation patrols throughout the region, Pentagon spokesman Lt Col Jeffrey Pool told The Associated Press on Thursday. The Department of Defense “is responding to this crisis and taking this seriously,” he said.Washington has been urging governments in the region to cooperate on search and rescue operations and sheltering the refugees and migrants. Most of the Bangladeshis are believed to be fleeing poverty and seeking better economic opportunities in Malaysia and elsewhere.
