Malaysia, Indonesia and Thailand to meet on boatpeople crisis

[webfact]

Malaysia, Indonesia and Thailand to meet on boatpeople crisis
AFP

BANGKOK: -- Malaysia's foreign minister was to host his Indonesian and Thai counterparts on Wednesday for urgent talks on Southeast Asia's boatpeople crisis, with pressure mounting on them to help thousands of starving migrants.

The three nations have sparked outrage by turning away vessels overloaded with migrants from Myanmar's ethnic Rohingya minority and with poor Bangladeshis.

Nearly 3,000 such migrants have swum to shore or been rescued off Malaysia, Indonesia and Thailand over the past week after a Thai crackdown prompted some people-traffickers to abandon their human cargo at sea.

The three-way meeting comes as Myanmar -- a fellow member of the 10-country Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) -- also has come under global criticism for its poor treatment of the Muslim Rohingya, which is blamed for helping to fuel the mass migration.

Malaysia's Anifah Aman, Indonesian Foreign Minister Retno Marsudi, and their Thai counterpart Tanasak Patimapragorn will meet starting at 9 am (0100 GMT) near Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia's government said.

The UN's refugee agency told AFP on Tuesday it had received reports that at least 2,000 migrants had been stranded on at least five boats controlled by human-traffickers near the Myanmar-Bangladesh coasts for more than 40 days.

Traffickers were holding the people captive on boats amid "food shortages, dehydration and violence" unless they paid for their release, a spokeswoman for the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) said.

The agency has said a total of nearly 4,000 people from Myanmar and Bangladesh may be stranded at sea.

The UN's human rights and refugee chiefs joined others in calling on Malaysia, Indonesia and Thailand on Tuesday to launch search and rescue operations, bring boatpeople to land and launch procedures for assessing any refugee claims.

Last week UN Secretary Ban Ki-moon and the US State Department called for action to help the boatpeople.

The Bangladeshis are believed to be mainly economic migrants.

But many Rohingya are fleeing their homes in western Myanmar after years of violence and discrimination at the hands of the Buddhist majority. Most head for Muslim-majority Malaysia.

Each spring, boats stream southward out of the Bay of Bengal, trying to beat seasonal monsoon storms.

Anifah called Sunday on Myanmar -- which fiercely disavows any responsibility for the Rohingya -- to engage in talks on the crisis.

-- (c) Copyright AFP 2015-05-20

[noitom]

Without Myannmar and Bangladesh sitting at the table and willing to solve the problem, there will never be a solution by these three. China, S. Korea, and Japan need to step up to the plate and get involved in this serious Asian humanitarian problem. It's time for the Kpreans , Japanese and Chinese pay back the world for their good lives. The international press should pressure them.

[Strangebrew]

One solution is to stop planned railroad through Thailand to Myannmar Ports. They won't listen till you hit there Pockets And all countries who are at present investing in Myannmar With drawn spending on projects till they come to the table to help solve this issue. China could careless about what is happening just look at Tibet and how there treated. I'm an American And Yes I feel the US should drop it's issue on who is running Thailand sit and offer all the help it can American people are first to open hearts and wallets when need arises.and that is a" fact JACK".

[steven100]

All will be in denial, and even if they all offer to assist so as to resolve the problem it will be a trickle effort and then eventually falter.

None of these countries are going to do too much if it involves big $$$ .... period.

[lvr181]

Another "talkfest" with little real action? I hope not

[DM07]

Meet in a nice hotel, good food, expensive drinks and with the Myanmar missing, they just have a nice chat on the expense of the taxpayer!

Results?

Zero!

...meanwhile, in the real world, people are dying from hunger and thirst on shoddy boats, somewhere between Myanmar and Australia!

Who cares?!

[Lupatria]

Meanwhile somewhere around Patong Beach...

[HerbalEd]

Myannmar and Bangladesh governments are showing how evil they truly are. They're actually happy to see the Rohingya people leave their countries and thus don't want it to stop.

I have a friend who attended an embassy party in Katmandu, Nepal several years ago who says she said she was disgusted to see the Burmese general's wives wearing literally millions-of-dollars worth of jewelry while many in Burma were dying of starvation. Those same generals are still in power, although they now hide behind the thin veil of a pseudo-democracy.

[727Sky]

A bad situation all the way around.

If a country lets' them in they sow the seeds for bombs and social unrest in the near future.

If you don't let them in some of the biggest hippocrats will say countries are bad while the whole time not wanting to live next doot to these boat people....

Japan solved the problem with limited or no immigration by Muslims. Demark said "no Mosque can be built in their country" according to a friend who said so today.. I dunno...but the Mosque are the breeding grounds for the radicals so maybe Denmark figured it out a bit before others....

[cookee68]

Well concentrate more on the traffickers that's a start

[pitchag]

It beats me why Muslims treated badly by majority Budhist countries want to come to other majority Budhist countries, why not head for another muslim country to settle in, Thaland has it's own muslim problems without importing more.