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In crisis: Rohingya refugees from Myanmar's Rakhine state wait for aid at Kutupalong refugee camp in the Bangladeshi town of Teknaf on Sept.5. Nearly 125,000 mostly Rohingya refugees have entered Bangladesh since a fresh upsurge of violence in Myanmar on Aug. 25, the United Nations said September 5, as fears grow of a humanitarian crisis in the overstretched camps. The UN said 123,600 had crossed the border in the past 11 days from Myanmar's violence-wracked Rakhine state.
(AFP/K M Asad)
A
s ASEAN member countries have their hands tied with the nonintervention principle preventing them from directly dealing with the Rohingya crisis, another regional grouping is offering a fresh approach on how to deal with the matter.
The Asia Dialogue on Forced Migration (ADFM), an expert group recognized by the Bali Process on People Smuggling, Trafficking in Persons and Related Transnational Crimes, told senior officials from Indonesia and Australia that they should trigger a consultation mechanism that allowed for fast communication and coordination in emergency situations.
“Activating the consultation mechanism could achieve several objectives,” said Steve Wong of the Institute of Strategic and International Studies Malaysia, one of four convening organizations of the ADFM.
It would ensure there was an honest broker with authority and legitimacy to share information and coordinate policy responses in the region, Wong said following a recent meeting in the Philippines, as quoted in a statement on Sunday.
In March 2016, foreign ministers under the Bali Process pledged more agile and timely responses to urgent irregular migrations, initiated as a result of the Bali Process’ failure to effectively respond to the 2015 Andaman Sea crisis, in which almost 25,000 stateless Rohingyas took to boats to escape persecution from Myanmar’s Buddhist government. This mass migration flow caused a crisis across Thailand, Malaysia and Indonesia.
Indonesia and Australia are cochairs to the Bali Process, of which Myanmar is also a member.
“Stepping up could make a huge difference to the region’s most vulnerable people and give other regional structures such as ASEAN confidence to take appropriate action,” Travers McLeod CEO of the Australia-based Center for Policy Development said in the release.
