Boat people risking their lives for a job

THOUSANDS of members of the Rohingya Muslim minority group, who are fleeing discrimination in Myanmar, where they are not recognized as citizens, were stranded at sea during the last week of May, after they were abandoned by human traffickers whom they had paid to take them to Malaysia. An estimated 3, 000 of them managed to swim to shore, and were rescued on the coasts of Indonesia, Malaysia and Thailand.

Indonesia and Malaysia, whose navies had once routinely pushed boatloads of migrants away from their shores, announced they would no longer turn away boat people, and agreed to take in the stranded migrants until they could either be sent home or resettled in a third country.

An estimated 7, 000 to 8, 000 migrants are still at sea, abandoned by their traffickers, since Thailand began cracking down on human smuggling. Indonesia and Malaysia said that they would provide assistance to those who are still at sea, many of whom were women and children. They agreed to offer them temporary shelter, provided that the resettlement process would be done within one year, by the international community.

The Philippines received universal praise from humanitarian agencies for promptly offering asylum to the refugees from Myanmar and Bangladesh, who had been stranded at sea. The United Nations High Commission for Refugees released a statement saying that the UNHCR was reassured that the right to asylum would be upheld in the Philippines, once the migrants boats reach Philippine shores.

As a signatory to the Convention Relating to the Status of Refugees, the Philippines has an obligation to extend assistance to asylum seekers and refugees.