Arakan News Agency
The Philippines has expressed readiness to share with the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) its best practices on processing of refugees and managing the deployment of workers to ensure their safe and legal passage to destination countries.…
Foreign Affairs spokesman Charles Jose said this was discussed during the Philippines participation in the meeting in Bangkok last Friday on Rohingya refugees.
He added that the Philippines is ready to cooperate under a regional and United Nations framework to protect people stranded at sea and prevent smuggling of migrants and trafficking in persons.
The Philippines was invited to the special meeting on irregular migration in the Indian Ocean on May 29 in Bangkok, Thailand.
High level officials from the justice and foreign affairs departments attended the meeting.
The purpose of the meeting was to come up with a comprehensive plan of action to respond on the alarming rise of irregular movements in the Indian Ocean, majority of which are the Rohingyas.
Communications Secretary Sonny Coloma earlier said the Philippines, as a state party to relevant instruments such as the 1951 Convention Relating to the Status of Refugees, will provide “succor and relief to persons involuntarily displaced from their homelands as a consequence of political conflict.”
“We shall continue to do our share in saving lives under existing and long-standing mechanisms pursuant to our commitments under the Convention,” he said.
The Philippine government’s statements drew praise from the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), who said the Philippines stands on moral high ground to sway other nations to save the lives of the most persecuted indigenous peoples in the world today. [MORAL HIGH GROUND
UNHCR Representative in the Philippines Bernard Kerblat said the Philippines, albeit not a rich country, has always been a generous nation.
Source : abs-cbnnews
