News Desk :The much-anticipated special international conference on irregular migration crisis in the Southeast Asia was discussed in Bangkok, Thailand on Friday with a call for long lasting solutions. In the conference, Bangladesh expressed its readiness to bring back its nationals, who have been victims of trafficking, but urged the international community to demonstrate “courage” to deal with the root causes for a “decisive and long lasting solutions”. Foreign Secretary M Shahidul Haque, who represented Bangladesh at the conference, conveyed the country’s position while addressing the special conference on Friday. He said Dhaka was “deeply concerned” over the unfolding humanitarian tragedy in the Indian Ocean, according to a Foreign Ministry statement here.”We’re talking about human beings who are victims or potential victims. They deserve our compassion. Our collective endeavor should be to protect their lives, alleviate their sufferings and uphold their dignity,” he said.In the meeting, Bangladesh proposed to open a liaison office at Bangladesh and Myanmar bordering area. It also urged the participating countries to work in a coordinated way to resist the human trafficking.Meanwhile, the Thai Foreign Ministry said Myanmar and Bangladesh, the departure points for thousands of boat people, agreed on Friday to address the “root causes” of the migration crisis in the meeting. Describing the talks as “very constructive”, Norachit Sinhaseni, permanent secretary to the Thai Ministry of Foreign Affairs, said all 17 countries at the table had agreed to a document that includes a commitment “to address factors in the areas of (migrants’) origin.”At least 17 countries from across the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean) and elsewhere in Asia, along with the US, Switzerland and international organisations like UNHCR, the UN refugee agency convened in the meeting. The meeting came in the wake of recent perilous exodus of people fleeing south by boat to Thailand, Indonesia and Malaysia. Foreign Secretary Shahidul Haque said there is no doubt that there is little time to wait. “In fact, we are already late. While we grapple with the root causes, we cannot afford to let the traffickers win over us.”He said as the present case indicates, they are pitted against an organized transnational criminal network that has acquired the capacity to challenge our national efforts. “We shall succeed in dismantling this network only when we coordinate our efforts across the entire spectrum at sources, during transit and at destinations.”The Foreign Secretary said all must intensify regional cooperation in all sincerity and determination. “There appears to be strong political will to find an effective, comprehensive and sustainable solution to address all forms of irregular movements and human trafficking in the region,” Haque said, adding that this meeting is a test case of our resolve to translate this will into a meaningful and far-reaching outcome Thailand called the meeting to finding out a solution to the humanitarian crisis that has gripped Asean since the discovery of mass migrant graves in Songkhla province on May 1.The human-trafficking crackdown that followed disrupted normal people-smuggling routes and left thousands of Rohingya and Bangladeshi migrants adrift at sea. Thailand’s Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister General Tanasak Patimapragorn came up with a call to action, saying the influx of boat migrants had reached an “alarming level”. “Thailand had 600 newly arrived boatpeople in temporary holding areas in the South,” he said while addressing the inaugural session of the Special Meeting on Irregular Migration in the Indian Ocean at a hotel in Bangkok, Thailand on Friday.He denied having found any army personnel’s link with the human trade. “We agree that high ranking officials were involved in trafficking of people. There are police among them. But so far, we haven’t found any army officials to be involved in this,” General Tanasak said.He added investigation was going on and the government will take action against any army official found to be involved in the crime.”Thailand has approved a request to allow the US military to operate flights out of Thailand to search for migrants stuck on boats. So far, the US Navy flights have been operating out of Subang, Malaysia. The Thailand-based missions can begin immediately,” Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister said. Myanmar insisted it was not to blame for Souteast Asia’s latest influx of “boat people” at a regional crisis meeting in Thailand on Friday. Myanmar’s delegate, Foreign Ministry director-general Htin Linn, shot back in a speech afterward, saying Mr Volker Turk, UN Assistant High Commissioner for Refugees should “be more informed” and casting doubt on whether “the spirit of cooperation is prevailing in the room”. Myanmar has denied citizenship to 1.3 million Rohingyas and initially said it would not even attend the conference if the word “Rohingya” was used. It has consistently denied any persecution of the Muslim minority and rejects any accusation its treatment of the Rohingya is a root cause of the crisis. “Finger pointing will to serve any purpose. It will take us nowhere,”‘ Htin Linn said.The United States’ delegate to the meeting, however, said the thousands of stranded migrants need immediate rescue. “We have to save lives urgently,” US Assistant Secretary of State Anne Richard told reporters on her way into the meeting.The director-general of the International Organisation for Migration, William Lacy Swing, also said earlier that a long-term, comprehensive policy has to be put together, and that no single element is going to solve the issue. He added, “I think Myanmar has to be engaged in any solution involving any of the groups, absolutely.”
