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 More than 3,000 migrants have landed so far this month in Malaysia
and Indonesia. Together with Thailand, they have opted for a
"not-in-my-backyard" policy in response, pushing away many boats
that approached their shores despite appeals from the United Nations
to take them in.
While the latest statement signaled a shift in policy by Malaysia
and Indonesia that would allow the migrants to come ashore, they
underlined that the international community also had a
responsibility to help them deal with the crisis.
The migrants are Rohingya Muslims from Myanmar and Bangladeshis -
men, women and children who fled persecution and poverty at home or
were abducted by traffickers, and now face sickness and starvation
at sea.
"What we have clearly stated is that we will take in only those
people in the high sea," Malaysian Foreign Minister Anifah Aman
said. "But under no circumstances would we be expected to take each
one of them if there is an influx of others."
Malaysia and Indonesia said in a joint statement in Kuala Lumpur
that they would offer "resettlement and repatriation", a process
that would be "done in a year by the international community".
 The United Nations, which has been calling on governments in the
region to rescue those drifting at sea, welcomed the move and urged
that people be brought to shore "without delay".
THAILAND OPTS OUT
Aman said temporary shelters would be set up, but not in Thailand, a
favored transit point for the migrants who try to make their way to
work illegally in Malaysia.
Thai officials have said authorities will check on migrants at sea
and will allow the sick to come to shore for medical attention, but
the government has stopped short of saying whether it would allow
other migrants to disembark.
Thailand, whose foreign minister also attended the meeting in the
Malaysian capital, has called a regional conference on the issue in
Bangkok for May 29.
"We maintain our stance that we are a transit country. In the
meeting we said that our country has more problems than theirs,"
Thai Prime Minister Prayuth Chan-Ocha said.
"On whether we will accept or not accept (more) migrants you have to
wait until May 29 when various organizations and countries will
meet," he told reporters in Bangkok.
Phil Robertson of Human Rights Watch welcomed the joint statement,
which he said "should mark the end of the region's push back
policies against Rohingya and Bangladeshi boat people", but added it
was "disturbing" that "Thailand was missing in action".
Hours before the ministers met to discuss a crisis on which the
confrontation-shy Association of Southeast Asia Nations (ASEAN) has
barely commented, hundreds of Rohingya and Bangladeshi landed in
Indonesia's Aceh province.
"We have to find ways to resettling them as soon as possible without
creating a new moral hazard," Dewi Fortuna Anwar, political adviser
to Indonesia's vice president, told reporters in Jakarta.
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"If migrants start thinking of Indonesia as a transit point or as
having a higher chance of getting resettled, that would create
another problem that we have to prevent."
She said the main responsibility lay with Myanmar, which the United
Nations said last week must stop discrimination against Rohingya
Muslims to end a pattern of migration from the corner of the Bay of
Bengal into the Andaman Sea and Malacca Strait.
"ROOT CAUSES"
The United States echoed these calls, with a senior State Department
official pointing to conditions in Rakhine state as driving
Rohingyas to flee.
"Ultimately (Myanmar) must take steps to address the root causes
that drove these people (to sea) and we need long term sustainable
solutions, development, protection of basic human rights if we're
really going to answer the problem," Deputy Secretary of State
Antony Blinken told a conference in Jakarta.
Blinken is due to visit Myanmar on Thursday to discuss the unfolding
crisis with its government.
Most of Myanmar's 1.1 million Rohingya Muslims are stateless and
live in apartheid-like conditions. Almost 140,000 were displaced in
clashes with ethnic Rakhine Buddhists in 2012.
Myanmar terms the Rohingya "Bengalis", a name most Rohingya reject
because it implies they are immigrants from neighboring Bangladesh
despite having lived in Myanmar for generations.
"We have a big desire to help but this is not just Indonesia's
responsibility. This is mainly the responsibility of the Myanmar
government which should be protecting all its citizens and not
forcing some of them to flee," Anwar said.
Myanmar's foreign ministry said in a statement published by state
media on Wednesday that the government was making "serious efforts"
to prevent people smuggling and illegal migration.
This included patrolling by the navy and air force in Myanmar's
territorial waters, it said, adding that Myanmar was prepared to
work with the international community to alleviate the suffering of
smuggled victims.
(Additional reporting by Anuradha Raghu in KUALA LUMPUR, Kanupriya
Kapoor in JAKARTA, Amy Sawitta Lefevre in BANGKOK; Writing by John
Chalmers; Editing by Alex Richardson)
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