Malaysia orders sea search, rescue for migrants

Malaysia's prime minister said Thursday he has ordered the navy and the coast guard to comb the sea to look for stranded migrants, making his the first country to announce it will search for the refugees in desperate need of help instead of waiting for them to wash up on Southeast Asia's shores.

A day after migrants recounted being turned away from Malaysian waters at gunpoint Prime Minister Najib Razak said via Twitter that he had ordered the navy and coast guard “to conduct search and rescue efforts (for) Rohingya boats. We have to prevent loss of life.”

In the past three weeks, more than 3,000 people — Rohingya Muslims fleeing persecution in Myanmar and Bangladeshis trying to escape poverty — have landed in overcrowded boats on the shores of Indonesia, Malaysia and Thailand. After initially pushing many boats back, Malaysia and Indonesia announced on Wednesday that they will offer temporary shelter to all incoming migrants.

Although the announcement was seen as a major breakthrough, rights groups said the proposal addressed only part of the problem, and urged countries to start actively searching for those stranded at sea. The U.N. refugee agency believes there are 4,000 still at sea, although some activists put the number at 6,000.

Migrants said on Wednesday that they had been sent away by the Thai navy on three occasions and Malaysian authorities twice.

The second time they were rebuffed by Malaysian authorities, they say they were held at gunpoint and told that their ship would be sunk if they did not turn around.

Meanwhile, the foreign minister of Malaysia was scheduled to visit Myanmar on Thursday to discuss the crisis.

Malaysia’s foreign ministry issued a carefully worded statement saying the two would “exchange views on irregular movements of people ... in Southeast Asia,” using politically correct language so as not to offend Myanmar — which refuses to shoulder any blame for the crisis or discuss the matter if the word “Rohingya” is mentioned.

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.

While Indonesia and Malaysia said Wednesday they would temporarily take in some refugees, they also appealed for international help, saying the crisis is a global, not a regional, problem.

On Thursdsay, Prime Minister Tony Abbott has ruled out Australia resettling any Rohingya refugees, warning that asylum seekers who take to boats must not be rewarded with a new life in a Western country.

“Nope, nope, nope,” Abbott told reporters Thursday.

“We are not going to do anything that will encourage people to get on boats. If we do the slightest thing to encourage people to get on the boats, this problem will get worse, not better,” he added.

Australia is a signatory to the United Nations Refugee Convention and is one of the world's most generous countries on a per capita basis in taking in refugees, resettling 13,750 a year. But it refuses to accept asylum seekers who attempt to reach its shores by boat.So far there have been two offers from the international community.

On Wednesday, Gambia said it was willing to take in Rohingya refugees. “As human beings, more so fellow Muslims, it is (our) sacred duty to help,” the presidency said in a statement.

In Washington, the State Department said Wednesday the United States was also willing to take in Rohingya refugees as part of international efforts to cope with the crisis. Spokeswoman Marie Harf said that the U.S. is prepared to take a leading role in any multicountry effort, organized by the United Nations refugee agency, to resettle the most vulnerable refugees.

U.S. deputy secretary of state Antony Blinken told reporters in Jakarta on Wednesday that the U.S. will provide aid to Southeast Asian nations tackling the crisis.

“We’re in conversation and discussion with all of the relevant governments — including here in Indonesia — about other concrete ways that we can help to share some of these burdens, because Indonesia in taking in so many people is assuming a big burden,” he said.

“And we’re looking at very practical ways in how we can help them assume that burden.”

Al Jazeera with wire services