Key issues, challenges facing Asean at Friday migrant conference

In the past month, more than 3,000 desperate, hungry people have landed on the shores of Indonesia, Malaysia and Thailand, drawing international attention to a crisis in Southeast Asia.

Arrivals of the overcrowded boats -- crammed with Rohingya Muslims fleeing persecution in Myanmar and impoverished Bangladeshis hoping to find jobs -- have now slowed. But the crisis is far from over, and will be the topic of a Friday conference in Bangkok to be attended by officials from across the Asia-Pacific and beyond.

A look at key issues and challenges:

History

A Rohingya Muslim man carries containers of water in front of boats near a jetty at a refugee camp outside Sittwe, Myanmar May 21. (Reuters photo)

Minority Rohingya Muslims have been fleeing predominantly Buddhist Myanmar for decades, and paying human traffickers with flimsy boats to take them away from violence and state-sanctioned discrimination. And for years, Southeast Asia has quietly ignored the issue, partly because of a policy of not publicly criticizing each other's governments. But recently the problem became too big to overlook.

Thailand launched a crackdown on human trafficking earlier this month that prompted smugglers to abandon their boats, leaving what aid groups estimated were thousands of migrants stranded at sea. Survivors, including women and children, came ashore with first-hand accounts of beatings, ransom kidnappings by traffickers and near-starvation.

Friday's guest list

Myanmar government and UN officials stand on a boat used for human trafficking at a jetty outside Sittwe, Myanmar May 23. Thailand has invited representatives from 17 countries directly and indirectly affected by “irregular migration in the Indian Ocean.” (Reuters photo)

Thailand has invited representatives from 17 countries directly and indirectly affected by "irregular migration in the Indian Ocean." They are Australia, Bangladesh, Cambodia, India, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines, Vietnam, New Zealand, Papua New Guinea, Sri Lanka, Pakistan, Afghanistan and Iran.

Representatives from the United States, Japan and Switzerland will participate as observers, along with officials from international organizations including the UN refugee agency, the UN Office on Drugs and Crime and the International Organization for Migration.

Challenges

Indonesian Muslim protesters hold defaced posters of Myanmar's radical Buddhist monk Ashin Wirathu during a protest demanding an end to the violence against ethnic Rohingyas in Rakhine State, outside the Embassy of Myanmar in Jakarta May 27. Buddhist-Muslim acrimony across Asean is one of the obstacles facing resolution of the crisis. (AP photo)

Most countries have made clear they are not keen to take in the Rohingya or the Bangladeshi migrants, fearing that accepting a few will invite many more.

• Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott: "Nope, nope, nope," when asked if Australia would resettle any of the Rohingya or Bangladeshis. "We are not going to do anything that will encourage people to get on boats."
• Bangladesh's Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina said migrants who fled Bangladesh are "mentally sick" to have risked their lives on dangerous boats. She said they have "tainted" the country's image abroad and vowed to punish them.
  

  A camp for Rohingya in Ukhiya, near Cox's Bazar, a southern coastal district, about 296 kilometres south of Dhaka. As a boat people crisis emerged in Southeast Asia in recent weeks, nearly all the focus has been on the Rohingya. But of the more than 3,000 people who have come ashore this month in Indonesia, Malaysia and Thailand, about half were from Bangladesh. (AP photo)

• Myanmar's government denies the Rohingya citizenship, making them effectively stateless. It views the estimated 1.3 million Rohingya living in dire conditions in western Rakhine state as illegal migrants from Bangladesh. Officials initially said that none of the boat people came from Myanmar, and threatened to boycott the talks if the word "Rohingya" appeared on the invitation. It was left out.
• Malaysia and Indonesia agreed last week to provide the migrants with one-year shelter. Indonesia says Rohingya can stay for a year while Bangladeshis will be repatriated. It is unclear what happens after a year, and both countries have called on the international community to help with resettlement options.
• Thailand has offered "humanitarian help" but not shelter. More than 100,000 refugees, mostly from Myanmar's other ethnic groups, have been living in border camps for decades, and Thailand says it can't afford any more.
• Thailand, Indonesia and Malaysia agree that the key to solving the migrant crisis is addressing "the root cause" -- which means the situation in Myanmar. It's not an easy task when Myanmar officials are loath to even utter the word "Rohingya."
• The United States is prepared to take a leading role in resettling the most vulnerable Rohingya refugees, according to State department spokeswoman Marie Harf. She said the US was "taking a careful look" at the Malaysian-Indonesia request to resettle migrants after a year of temporary shelter, but noted that the US took in more than 1,000 Rohingya in the past fiscal year and "obviously can't take this all on ourselves."

Minister of Foreign Affairs of Indonesia, Retno Marsudi (right); Malaysia, Anifah Aman (centre); and Thailand, Gen Tanasak Patimapragorn, during their meeting on human trafficking and people smuggling in Putrajaya, Malaysia May 20. A much larger meeting takes place in Bangkok Friday. (EPA photo)

Friday's goals

Rohingya Muslim children attend religious school at a refugee camp outside Sittwe, Myanmar May 21. (Reuters photo)

International human rights groups have urged the countries to prioritize and address the most urgent problems.

Human Rights Watch called on Thailand, Malaysia and Indonesia to find a better, coordinated method of saving the people still stranded at sea -- and urged Thailand to allow migrants to disembark on their shores.

It urged the governments to put pressure on Myanmar to end the repressive policies that drive Rohingya to flee. It also called on Thailand, Indonesia and Malaysia to allow the UNHCR and IOM full access to rescued boat people to determine refugee status and other protection needs.