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ASEAN leadership needed to address forced migration amid Myanmar crisis, COVID-19: ADFM
Southeast Asia continues to have “deficits of leadership and accountability” when it comes to providing an adequate response to the forced migration issue, which requires ASEAN leaders to prioritize migrants’ protection, said the Asia Dialogue on Forced Migration (ADMF).
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A group of Rohingya refugees gathers on a beach after arriving at Pulau Idaman, a small island off the coast of East Aceh in northern Sumatra on June 4. (AFP/Cekmad)
A
recently convened track-two diplomatic forum is calling on ASEAN leaders to tackle the issue of forced migration, just as civil unrest and the COVID-19 pandemic have exacerbated the cross-border problem and more refugees are ending up on Indonesian shores.
Southeast Asia continues to have “deficits of leadership and accountability” when it comes to providing an adequate response to the forced migration issue, which requires ASEAN leaders to prioritize migrants’ protection, said Travers McLeod, coconvenor of the Asia Dialogue on Forced Migration (ADMF).
The ADFM has issued a report outlining the challenges representing likely drivers of forced migration in the wider Indo-Pacific region, based on a forum meeting in May that looked into aspects such as instability in Myanmar and the COVID-19 pandemic's impact on migration.
The report, published last Friday, said that “renewed political instability and civil conflicts are creating new waves of potential forced migrants”.
The assessment came amid new waves of Rohingya refugee arrivals in Aceh province on Indonesia’s northwestern coast this week and last week. Members of the persecuted minority have resorted to perilous sea journeys to escape refugee camps in Bangladesh.
Read also: Dozens of Rohingya refugees land off Aceh coast
Some 1 million Rohingya live in cramped camps in Bangladesh, where human traffickers run lucrative operations promising to find them sanctuary abroad, including in Indonesia. They fled Myanmar to escape a military crackdown against them four years ago, which United Nations investigators said amounted to genocide.
