Malaysia, Bangladesh to discuss migrant crisis
Foreign ministers from Malaysia and Bangladesh are to hold talks over a migrant crisis facing the two countries ahead of a summit on the issue.
Malaysian Foreign Minister Anifah Aman is to meet his Bangladeshi counterpart Abul Hassan Mahmud Ali on Sunday in Kota Kinabalu, the capital of Malaysia’s Sabah State in northwestern Borneo (Kalimantan).
The issue of the rising international uproar over the migrant crisis “is one of the topics and a very important issue” on the agenda of the meeting, Aman has said. The Malaysian foreign minister will also meet his Indonesian and Thai counterparts later this week over the same issue.
The Sunday meeting will take place ahead of a summit addressing the current migrant crisis in Southeast Asia, which is scheduled to be held on May 29 in the Thai capital, Bangkok.
Representatives from Malaysia and Bangladesh, as well as 13 other countries, including Indonesia, Myanmar, Australia, and the United States, have been invited to participate in the end-of-May summit.
Every year, thousands of Bangladeshi refugees and Rohingya Muslims from Myanmar attempt to enter Malaysia, mainly from Bangladesh’s southern coastal town of Teknaf, which borders Myanmar’s Rakhine State on its western coast.
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The host countries are often unwilling to provide refuge to the asylum seekers.
On May 14, Malaysia turned away two boats carrying over 800 desperate Rohingyas and Bangladeshi migrants, leaving them stranded at sea.
Another Malaysia-bound vessel, packed with hundreds of Rohingya Muslims and Bangladeshis, was turned away by the Indonesian navy on May 12.
The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) has repeatedly called on Myanmar’s neighboring countries to accept the Rohingya Muslims.
Plight of Rohingya
The United Nations recognizes the Rohingya Muslims living in Myanmar, mainly in Rakhine, as one of the world’s most persecuted communities in the world. The Muslim minority has witnessed torture, neglect and repression by extremist Buddhists in the country.
Myanmar denies citizenship to its 1.3 million Rohingyas, placing restrictions on their movement, marriage, and economic opportunities.
On Friday, the government of Myanmar announced that its delegation is “unlikely” to attend the Bangkok summit.
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