‘Stop oppressing Rohingya people,’ Malaysia asks Burma

KUALA LUMPUR—Southeast Asia must send a “very strong message” to Burma (Myanmar) to stop oppressing its Rohingya minority, who are part of a surge in boat people raising fears of a regional humanitarian crisis, a Malaysian government official said on Thursday.

Deputy HomeMinister Wan Junaidi Tuanku Jaafar said Southeast Asia’s growing refugee problem was due in large part to Burma’s treatment of Rohingya, a Muslim minority that faces state discrimination and has been targeted in recent sectarian violence.

“Of course, there is a problem back home in Burma with the way they treat the Rohingya people,” Wan Junaidi said.

“So that is why we need to send a very strong message to Burma that they need to treat their people with humanity. They need to be treated like humans, and cannot be so oppressive.”

Thousands of Rohingya Muslims and Bangladeshis abandoned at sea by human traffickers had nowhere to go on Thursday as Malaysia turned away two boats crammed with more than 800 migrants, saying it could not afford to keep being “nice.”

Indonesia and Thailand also appeared unwilling to provide refuge to desperate men, women and children, despite appeals by the UN High Com- missioner for Refugees, international aid agencies and rights activists, who warned lives were at risk.

Fearing arrests, captains tied to trafficking networks have in recent days abandoned ships in the busy Strait of Malacca and surrounding waters, leaving behind their human cargo, in many cases with little food or water, according to survivors. Around 1,600 have been rescued but an estimated 6,000 remain stranded at sea.

Phil Robertson of Human Rights Watch Asia accused Indonesia, Thailand and Malaysia of playing “a threeway game of human ping pong.”

Wan Junaidi said about 500 people on board a boat found on Wednesday off the coast of northern Penang state —just days after more than a thousand refugees were taken in on nearby Langkawi island—were given provisions and then sent on their way.

Another boat carrying about 300 migrants was turned away near Langkawi island overnight, according to two Malaysian officials who declined to be identified.

Malaysia, which is not a signatory of international conventions on refugees, is host to more than 150,000 refugees and asylum seekers.