In a major diplomatic breakthrough that could ease Southeast Asia’s migrant crisis, Indonesia and Malaysia yesterday offered to temporarily take in thousands of people who have been stranded at sea, but appealed for international help, saying the crisis is a global, not 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 Indonesian fishermen who brought them ashore in Aceh Province.
One of the fishermen who led the rescue effort said that when he spotted the migrants’ green wooden trawler and saw the people on board screaming for help, he began to weep.
Photo: Reuters
“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,” 40-year-old Razali Puteh said.
People from the boat began jumping into the water trying to reach him, but the fisherman told them to stay put and then returned with other fishing boats.
“I could not let them die, because they are also human beings. Just like me,” Puteh said. “I am grateful to have saved hundreds of lives.”
In the past three weeks, more than 3,000 migrants who fled persecution in Myanmar and poverty in Bangladesh have landed in overcrowded boats on the shores of Southeast Asian countries. Aid groups estimate that thousands more are stranded at sea following a crackdown on human traffickers that prompted captains and smugglers to abandon their boats.
The mounting crisis prompted Malaysia, current chair of the ASEAN, to call an emergency meeting with the foreign ministers of Indonesia and Thailand yesterday.
“This is not an ASEAN problem,” Malaysian Foreign Minister Anifah Aman said after the meeting. “This is a problem for the international community. We are talking about a humanitarian crisis.”
Part of the crisis stemmed from the stance of ASEAN nations, which until now was to push boats away and not allow migrants to reach their shores, fearing that allowing a few to come in would lead to an unstoppable flow.
Thailand had said it could not afford to take any more migrants since it is already overburdened by tens of thousands of refugees from Myanmar, but agreed at the meeting to provide humanitarian assistance, Anifah said.
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,” they said in a joint statement.
Asked about the statement’s conditional wording, Anifah said the two nations would not wait for international support, but would start giving migrants shelter “immediately.”
“It has to be immediate because we can’t leave those people out at sea,” Anifah said at a news conference in Putrajaya, Malaysia.
The UN refugee agency believes there are about 4,000 still at sea, although some activists initially put the number at 6,000.
Another potential breakthrough came from Myanmar, with Burmese Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs Thant Kyaw indicating that his country would attend a conference to be hosted by Thailand on Friday next week that is to include 15 Asian nations affected by the crisis
“We all have to sit down and we all have to consider how to tackle this problem together,” he told reporters in Bangkok after meeting his Thai counterpart. “Myanmar is thinking of sending a delegation for the 29th of May meeting.”
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