The Myanmar authorities have launched the first naval operation to save an estimated 6,000 to 8,000 migrants stranded in the Bay of Bengal and the Andaman Sea, media reported on Friday.
The information ministry confirmed in a press release that the navy rescued 208 Bangladeshis off the western Myanmarese coast of Rakhine on Thursday night and Friday morning, as reported by the Democratic Voice of Burma news portal. The migrants’ boat was of Thai origin and set sail from Bangladesh, accompanied by a smaller supply boat; upon discovery, it was escorted to land and its occupants were provided with shelter and humanitarian aid.
The rescue operation coincided with Vice President Nyan Tun’s statement at a conference that Myanmar would comply with its international obligations regarding illegal migrants.
The same day, Myanmar’s President Thein Sein received US Deputy Secretary of State Tony Blinken, who visited the capital Nay Pyi Taw to discuss the country’s plan for tackling the migration crisis in Southeast Asia. A significant number of migrants are Rohingyas, an ethnic Muslim minority considered foreigners by both Myanmar and Bangladesh, who have been trying to escape ill-treatment and discrimination since <g data-gr-id="22">sectarian</g> violence began in 2012.
On Wednesday, Indonesia and Malaysia announced they would grant temporary asylum to stranded migrants as long as the international community was committed to relocating them in third countries or repatriate them within a year.
US calls on Myanmar to make Rohingya citizens
A senior US diplomat today urged Myanmar to extend “citizenship” to the oppressed Rohingya minority to address an ongoing migrant crisis that has hit Southeast Asia, leaving thousands stranded at sea.
More than 3,500 migrants have swum to shore or been rescued off the coasts of Malaysia, Indonesia, Thailand and Bangladesh since a Thai crackdown in early May on human-trafficking <g data-gr-id="44">threw</g> the illicit trade into chaos.
Myanmar, where many of the migrants start their journey, has faced increasing international pressure to stem the exodus from its shores and deliver urgent humanitarian relief to thousands still trapped at sea.
Myanmar today said its navy had carried out its first rescue of a boat stacked with around 200 migrants in the Bay of Bengal, in a sign of compromise after widespread criticism for not taking any responsibility for the crisis. The widespread persecution of the impoverished Muslim community in Myanmar’s western Rakhine state is one of the primary causes for the current crisis, alongside growing numbers trying to escape poverty in neighbouring Bangladesh.