Malaysia seeks Myanmar help on migrant crisis

Malaysia’s prime minister said on Saturday he would seek help from Myanmar to address the unfolding “humanitarian catastrophe” involving a wave of boatpeople flooding to Southeast Asia, thousands of whom are ethnic Rohingya fleeing oppression in the mainly Buddhist country.

Malaysia, Indonesia, and Thailand have come under increasing pressure to rescue a wave of starving and helpless Rohingya and Bangladeshi migrants after triggering outrage by turning them back out to sea with scarce food and nowhere to go.

PM Najib Razak said “we are liasing with the Myanmar government to get their response,” according to Malaysia’s official Bernama news agency. “I hope they will give a positive response as the refugees were due to internal problems that we cannot interfere with, but we want to do something before it gets worse,” he said. Myanmar’s cooperation is deemed vital to solving Southeast Asia’s biggest influx of boatpeople since the end of the Vietnam War.

But its government - which denies the Muslim Rohingya citizenship - has already rejected a Thai call for a regional summit on the issue on May 29.