7 000 ‘boat people’ rescued

The UN welcomed the move and urged that people be brought to shore ‘without delay’

KUALA LUMPUR: Malaysia and Indonesia said yesterday they would offer shelter to 7 000 “boat people” adrift at sea in rickety boats, but, anxious not to encourage a fresh influx, made it clear that their assistance was temporary and they would take no more.

More than 3 000 migrants have landed so far this month in Malaysia and Indonesia. Together with Thailand, they have opted for a “not-in-mybackyard” policy in response, pushing away many boats that approached their shores despite appeals from the UN to take them in. While the latest statement signalled a shift in policy by Malaysia and Indonesia, they underlined that the international community also had a responsibility to help them deal with the crisis.

The migrants are Rohingya Muslims from Myanmar and Bangladeshis – men, women and children who fled persecution and poverty at home or were abducted by traffickers, and now face sickness and starvation at sea.

“What we have clearly stated is that we will take in only those people in the high sea,” Malaysian Foreign Minister Anifah Aman said. “But under no circumstances would we be expected to take each one of them if there is an influx of others.”

Malaysia and Indonesia said they would offer “resettlement and repatriation”, a process that would be “done in a year by the international community”. The UN welcomed the move and urged that people be brought to shore “without delay”.

Aman said temporary shelters would be set up, but not in Thailand, a favoured transit point for the migrants.

Thai officials have said authorities would check on migrants at sea and allow the sick to come to shore for medical attention, but the government has stopped short of saying whether it would allow other migrants to disembark.

Thailand has called a regional conference on the issue in Bangkok for May 29. “We maintain our stance that we are a transit country. In the meeting we said that our country has more problems than theirs,” Thai Prime Minister Prayuth Chan-Ocha said.

Dewi Fortuna Anwar, political adviser to Indonesia’s vice-president, said the main responsibility lay with Myanmar, which the UN said must stop discriminating against Rohingya Muslims.

The US echoed these calls, with a senior State Department official pointing to conditions in Rakhine state as driving Rohingyas to flee.