Staff Reporter :
Myanmar refused to shoulder the blame for an escalating crisis involving thousands of persecuted Rohingya Muslims stranded at sea, according to media report.
The country also doubts whether it will attend a regional meeting in Thailand later this month to find an urgent solution on how to deal with the boats of refugees.
Thousands of migrants from Bangladesh and Myanmar are feared stranded in boats in the Andaman Sea after their crews deserted them. Indonesia, Malaysia and Thailand have been turning away migrant boats.
Survivors have described desperate conditions on the boats, with people thrown overboard amid fights for food. Many of the Bangladeshis at sea are thought to be economic migrants.
According to report, there are at least five people-smuggling boats, carrying up to 1,000 migrants, moored just off the northern coast of Myanmar near the maritime border with Bangladesh.
Boats filled with more than 2,000 desperate and hungry people have landed in Indonesia, Malaysia and Thailand, and thousands more migrants are believed to be adrift at sea after a crackdown on human traffickers prompted captains and smugglers to abandon their human cargo.
All three countries have dispatched their navies to push boats away or execute a so-called ‘help-on’ policy of giving the boats food and water – and pointing them to other countries.
The migrants are Rohingya Muslims fleeing persecution in predominantly-Buddhist Myanmar, and Bangladeshis looking for a better life abroad.
‘We are not ignoring the migrant problem, but our leaders will decide whether to attend the meeting based on what is going to be discussed,’ said Maj Zaw Htay, director of the office of Myanmar’s president. ‘We will not accept the allegations by some that Myanmar is the source of the problem.’
He directed some of the blame on Myanmar’s neighbors, saying that from a humanitarian point of view, ‘it’s sad that these people are being pushed out to sea by some countries.’
The migrants seem intent on reaching Malaysia, a Muslim-majority country that has hosted more than 45,000 Rohingya over the years but now says it can’t accept any more. Indonesia and Thailand have voiced similar stances.
Thailand has organised a May 29 meeting with officials from 15 countries to discuss the ‘root causes’ of ‘irregular migration in the Indian Ocean.’
An increasingly alarmed United Nations warned Friday against ‘floating coffins’ and urged regional leaders to put human lives first. The United States urged governments not to push back new boat arrivals.
Thai authorities, long accused of turning a blind eye to human trafficking in exchange for pay, launched a crackdown May 1 after finding dozens of bodies buried at traffickers’ jungle camps on Thailand’s border with Malaysia.
Dozens of Thai officials were arrested and more than 50 police are under investigation for complicity.
In the last three years, attacks on Rohingya have left hundreds dead and sparked an exodus of an estimated 120,000 people who have boarded human traffickers’ boats to flee to other countries. The flight helped fuel a longstanding human smuggling industry in the region.
Even the name Rohingya is taboo in Myanmar, which calls them ‘Bengalis’ and insists they are illegal immigrants from Bangladesh, even though Rohingya have lived in the predominantly Buddhist Southeast Asian country for generations.
Meanwhile, Malaysia’s prime minister on Saturday said he would seek help from Myanmar to address the unfolding “humanitarian catastrophe” involving a wave of boatpeople flooding to Southeast Asia, thousands of whom are ethnic Rohingya fleeing oppression in the mainly Buddhist country.
Malaysia, Indonesia, and Thailand have come under increasing pressure to rescue a wave of starving and helpless Rohingya and Bangladeshi migrantsafter triggering outrage by turning them back out to sea with scarce food and nowhere to go.
Prime Minister Najib Razak said “we are liasing with the Myanmar government to get their response,” according to Malaysia’s official Bernama news agency.
“I hope they will give a positive response as the refugees were due to internal problems that we cannot interfere with, but we want to do something before it gets worse,” he said.
Myanmar’s cooperation is deemed vital to solving Southeast Asia’s biggest influx of boatpeople since the end of the Vietnam War.
Myanmar refused to shoulder the blame for an escalating crisis involving thousands of persecuted Rohingya Muslims stranded at sea, according to media report.
The country also doubts whether it will attend a regional meeting in Thailand later this month to find an urgent solution on how to deal with the boats of refugees.
Thousands of migrants from Bangladesh and Myanmar are feared stranded in boats in the Andaman Sea after their crews deserted them. Indonesia, Malaysia and Thailand have been turning away migrant boats.
Survivors have described desperate conditions on the boats, with people thrown overboard amid fights for food. Many of the Bangladeshis at sea are thought to be economic migrants.
According to report, there are at least five people-smuggling boats, carrying up to 1,000 migrants, moored just off the northern coast of Myanmar near the maritime border with Bangladesh.
Boats filled with more than 2,000 desperate and hungry people have landed in Indonesia, Malaysia and Thailand, and thousands more migrants are believed to be adrift at sea after a crackdown on human traffickers prompted captains and smugglers to abandon their human cargo.
All three countries have dispatched their navies to push boats away or execute a so-called ‘help-on’ policy of giving the boats food and water – and pointing them to other countries.
The migrants are Rohingya Muslims fleeing persecution in predominantly-Buddhist Myanmar, and Bangladeshis looking for a better life abroad.
‘We are not ignoring the migrant problem, but our leaders will decide whether to attend the meeting based on what is going to be discussed,’ said Maj Zaw Htay, director of the office of Myanmar’s president. ‘We will not accept the allegations by some that Myanmar is the source of the problem.’
He directed some of the blame on Myanmar’s neighbors, saying that from a humanitarian point of view, ‘it’s sad that these people are being pushed out to sea by some countries.’
The migrants seem intent on reaching Malaysia, a Muslim-majority country that has hosted more than 45,000 Rohingya over the years but now says it can’t accept any more. Indonesia and Thailand have voiced similar stances.
Thailand has organised a May 29 meeting with officials from 15 countries to discuss the ‘root causes’ of ‘irregular migration in the Indian Ocean.’
An increasingly alarmed United Nations warned Friday against ‘floating coffins’ and urged regional leaders to put human lives first. The United States urged governments not to push back new boat arrivals.
Thai authorities, long accused of turning a blind eye to human trafficking in exchange for pay, launched a crackdown May 1 after finding dozens of bodies buried at traffickers’ jungle camps on Thailand’s border with Malaysia.
Dozens of Thai officials were arrested and more than 50 police are under investigation for complicity.
In the last three years, attacks on Rohingya have left hundreds dead and sparked an exodus of an estimated 120,000 people who have boarded human traffickers’ boats to flee to other countries. The flight helped fuel a longstanding human smuggling industry in the region.
Even the name Rohingya is taboo in Myanmar, which calls them ‘Bengalis’ and insists they are illegal immigrants from Bangladesh, even though Rohingya have lived in the predominantly Buddhist Southeast Asian country for generations.
Meanwhile, Malaysia’s prime minister on Saturday said he would seek help from Myanmar to address the unfolding “humanitarian catastrophe” involving a wave of boatpeople flooding to Southeast Asia, thousands of whom are ethnic Rohingya fleeing oppression in the mainly Buddhist country.
Malaysia, Indonesia, and Thailand have come under increasing pressure to rescue a wave of starving and helpless Rohingya and Bangladeshi migrantsafter triggering outrage by turning them back out to sea with scarce food and nowhere to go.
Prime Minister Najib Razak said “we are liasing with the Myanmar government to get their response,” according to Malaysia’s official Bernama news agency.
“I hope they will give a positive response as the refugees were due to internal problems that we cannot interfere with, but we want to do something before it gets worse,” he said.
Myanmar’s cooperation is deemed vital to solving Southeast Asia’s biggest influx of boatpeople since the end of the Vietnam War.
