Malaysia, Indonesia agree to take in stranded migrants

Malaysia and Indonesia said on Wednesday they would offer shelter to 7,000 Rohingya Muslims from Myanmar and Bangladeshi migrants adrift at sea in rickety boats, but made clear that their assistance was temporary and they would take no more.

More than 3,000 migrants have landed so far this month in Malaysia and Indonesia. The countries, along with Thailand, have opted for a policy of 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, leaders of the Southeast Asian nations underlined that the international community also had a responsibility to help them deal with the crisis.

The migrants are men, women and children who fled persecution and poverty in Myanmar and Bangladesh 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.”

Gambia's government also said Wednesday it was willing to resettle the Muslim Rohingya migrants. The office of President Yahya Jammeh said in a statement "as human beings, more so fellow Muslims, it is sacred duty to help alleviate the untold hardships and sufferings these fellow human beings are confronted with."

The director of the International Organization for Migration (IOM), General William Lacy Swing, said in a statement Wednesday: “We commend the governments of Malaysia and Indonesia, in particular, for committing to continue to provide humanitarian assistance to the some 7,000 irregular migrants still at sea.”

The move by Malaysian and Indonesian authorities stood in contrast to the position of Thailand, which has not committed to providing the migrants with refuge. Thailand is 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.

Meanwhile, Dewi Fortuna Anwar, political adviser to Indonesia's vice president, told reporters in Jakarta that the main responsibility for the migrants fell on Myanmar, which the United Nations said last week must end discrimination of Rohingya Muslims to end a pattern of migration from the corner of the Bay of Bengal into the Andaman Sea and Malacca Strait.

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 is likely to attend next week's conference on addressing the migrant crisis. The Myanmar government was initially reluctant to send a representative, but Thailand's Deputy Foreign Minister Don Pramudwinai confirmed Wednesday that Myanmar has accepted the invitation.

Myanmar's Deputy Foreign Minister Thant Kyaw told reporters, "We all have to sit down and we all have to consider how to tackle this problem." 

Al Jazeera and wire services