BANGKOK — In the past month, more than 3,000 desperate, hungry people have landed on the shores of Indonesia, Malaysia and Thailand, drawing international attention to a crisis in Southeast Asia. Arrivals of the overcrowded boats — crammed with Rohingya Muslims fleeing persecution in Myanmar and impoverished Bangladeshis hoping to find jobs — have now slowed. But the crisis is far from over, and will be the topic of a conference today in Bangkok to be attended by senior officials from across the Asia-Pacific and beyond.
A look at key issues and challenges:
History: Minority Rohingya Muslims have been fleeing predominantly Buddhist Myanmar for decades, and paying human traffickers with flimsy boats to take them away from violence and state-sanctioned discrimination. For years, Southeast Asia has quietly ignored the issue, partly because of a policy of not publicly criticizing each other’s governments. But recently the problem became too big to overlook. Thailand launched a crackdown on human trafficking earlier this month that prompted smugglers to abandon their boats, leaving what aid groups estimated were thousands of migrants stranded at sea.
Challenges: Most countries have made clear they are not keen to take in the Rohingya or the Bangladeshi migrants, fearing that accepting a few will invite many more.
• Thailand, Indonesia and Malaysia agree that the key to solving the migrant crisis is addressing “the root cause” — which means the situation in Myanmar. It’s not an easy task when Myanmar officials are loath to even utter the word “Rohingya.”
