Countries take in Myanmar migrants
Indonesia, Malaysia offer to ease crisis
• In a major breakthrough that could ease Southeast Asia’s migrant crisis, Indonesia and Malaysia offered Wednesday to take in temporarily thousands of people who have been stranded at sea, but appealed for international help, saying the crisis is a global, not a regional, problem.
The reversal in their positions after weeks of saying the migrants were not welcome came as more than 430 weak, hungry people were rescued — not by navies patrolling the waters but by a flotilla of fishermen who brought them ashore in Aceh, eastern Indonesia.
One of the men who led the rescue effort said when he spotted the migrants’ green wooden trawler and saw the people on board screaming for help, he began to weep.
“As we came close, I was shocked. I saw them crammed onto the boat. It left me speechless, and I broke down in tears as I watched them screaming, waving their hands and clothes,” said Razali Puteh, 40.
People began jumping into the water trying to reach him, but he told them to stay put, then returned with other fishing boats.
“I could not let them die, because they are also human beings. Just like me,” he said. “I am grateful to have saved hundreds of lives.”
In the past three weeks, more than 3,000 people — Rohingya Muslims fleeing persecution in Myanmar and Bangladeshis trying to escape poverty — have landed in overcrowded boats on the shores of southeast Asian countries. Aid groups estimate thousands more are stranded at sea after a crackdown on human traffickers that led captains and smugglers to abandon their boats.
The mounti n g crisis prompted Malaysia to call an emergency meeting with the foreign ministers of Indonesia and Thailand Wednesday. Malaysia is the current chairman of the 10-nation grouping of southeast Asian countries known as ASEAN.
“This is not an ASEAN problem,” Malaysian Foreign Minister Anifah Aman said after the meeting. “This is a problem for the international community.”
Malaysia and Indonesia “agreed to offer temporary shelter provided that the settlement and repatriation process will be done in one year by the international community,” according to a joint statement.
Anifah said the two countries would not wait for international support, but would start giving migrants shelter “immediately.”
Indonesian vice-president Jusuf Kalla said his govern-
I could not let them die, because they are also human beings
ment was ready to shelter Rohingya for one year, while the Bangladeshis would be sent back home. “A year is (the) maximum,” he said. “But there should be international cooperation.”
Thailand has said it cannot afford to take more migrants because it is overburdened by tens of thousands of refugees from Myanmar.
In Washington, a State Department spokeswoman said the United States is willing to take in some Rohingya refugees.
Marie Harf said it would take a leading role in any multi-country effort to resettle the most vulnerable refugees. The United Nations refugee agency is organizing the effort.
She said the U.S. welcomes a decision by Malaysia, Indonesia and Thailand to provide humanitarian assistance and shelter to 7,000 migrants stranded at sea.