Arakan News Agency
A conference aimed at addressing the swelling tide of boat people in Southeast Asia has ended with Myanmar warning “finger-pointing” will not help.
But delegates agreed on the need to keep talking.
Representatives of 17 countries affected by the crisis, along with the US and Japan and officials from organisations such as the UN refugee agency and the International Organisation for Migration (IOM) attended yesterday’s meeting in Bangkok.
Southeast Asia has been beset for years by growing waves of migrants from Bangladesh and Myanmar.
In recent weeks, at least 3000 people have been rescued or made their way ashore in Indonesia, Malaysia and Thailand. Several thousand more are believed to be abandoned at sea by smugglers amid a regional crackdown that has unearthed the graves of dozens who died being kept hostage in trafficking camps.
Many migrants are Rohingya Muslims who have fled persecution in Buddhist-majority Myanmar, which has denied them basic rights, confined more than 100,000 to camps and denies them citizenship. The word “Rohingya” did not appear on the invitation for the meeting, after Myanmar threatened to boycott the talks if it did.
Myanmar’s Government does not recognise Rohingya as an ethnic group, arguing they are really Bangladeshis. Bangladesh does not recognize the Rohingya as citizens.
An official summary of the meeting included a list of proposals and recommendations that were “put forward,” It was not clear that any had been agreed on.
But Thai Foreign Minister Thanasak Patimaprakorn said Bangkok agreed to allow the US military to operate search flights for migrants out of Thailand – a week after Washington asked to do so.
The flights will begin in the next few days. The US pledged $3 million to help the IOM deal with the crisis and Australia pledged $4.6m for humanitarian assistance in Myanmar.
It was the first time in years, if ever, that the nations in the region have openly discussed the Rohingya crisis.
Meanwhile, the Italian coastguard said it had co-ordinated the rescue of about 4200 migrants sailing across the Mediterranean Sea but also found corpses on several of the boats.
The 17 bodies were found on three inflatables, from which more than 300 other migrants were rescued alive, the Italian navy said.
Source : AP
