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ASEAN Politics: Playing Pass – Who Should Accept Responsibility for the Rohingya Refugees at Sea?
Felix Tan Thiam Kim —- PBIC Journal of ASEAN – Plus – Thammsat University, Thailand
Hundreds have been left stranded off the seas in rickety boats near the shores of Malaysia, Thailand and Indonesia in recent months. Given the sheer humanitarian crisis that it has since sparked, no country was willing to give these ‘boat people’ any form of safe refuge or even extending a helping hand. Not least until it caught the attention of the international community, who were incensed by the apparent lack of political will amongst Southeast Asian countries to aid these marooned refugees, when Malaysia and Indonesia finally obliged to provide temporary shelter and aid to them until a more amicable solution is found. Member states within ASEAN began to shift most of the blame to Myanmar, where, apparently, a large number of these refugees seemed to have come from. Myanmar, on the other hand, has argued that there are also those who are economic refugees from poverty- stricken Bangladesh and are not necessarily ‘Rohingyas’ from within Myanmar. Shortly after the media storm the ‘boat people’ has created in the international community, Thailand admitted that most of those ‘boat people’ have been victims of human trafficking. Images of mass graves found in Malaysia and Thailand further highlighted the plight of some of these ‘boat people’, or refugees, who have found their way onto land, some trespassing the porous borders of Southeast Asia. There have been a myriad of debates about where these ‘boat people’ might have come from and how countries can help alleviate the predicament of these people. However, one thing is certain, something has to be done to resolve this humanitarian crisis that will most likely dominate discussions in future ASEAN summits or ministerial meetings.
Who is to be blame? Whose responsibility is it anyway? These problems are not new, but the latest humanitarian crisis, however, has put the entire issue squarely onto the shoulders of ASEAN as an effective regional organisation. Established in November 2011, the ASEAN Coordinating Centre for Humanitarian Assistance on disaster management (AHA Centre) might finally be seeing its biggest challenge yet. The issue with the ‘boat people’ – and the ‘Rohingyas’ in Myanmar – has not only posed a huge humanitarian problem to ASEAN, but also underlined the role and the ineffectiveness of ASEAN in crisis management. This paper will, therefore, aim to examine these problems that the ASEAN regional group faces. It also aims to provide possible political and security solutions that the ASEAN community can take to rectify this crisis.
It was also later revealed that numerous trafficking sites and makeshift refugee camps were found in Thailand and Malaysia. This further highlight the dilemma of these refugees. They can remain stranded on the high seas waiting for some form of humanitarian aid to arrive, or if they manage to reach land, they are forced into dangerous and unsanitary camps where their captors routinely abuse them. Politically persecuted and considered social outcasts by the Myanmar authorities as well as some local Buddhist groups, the Rohingya Muslims have found that the best option in their plight is to leave the country that they have called home. Moreover, although they have suffered economic discrimination and ethnic segregation in their home country, many of them for generations.
Who is to blame? Whose responsibility is it anyway? What should, and could, ASEAN do to stem the fl ow of refugees and their systematic abuse? Should Myanmar be held responsible for this tragedy? These have been some of the questions asked about this humanitarian crisis. The most direct way would be to point to the source: the Myanmar government. The Myanmar authorities’ refusal to recognise the Rohingya Muslims residing in its north-western state of Rakhine has culminated, over the years, in so many of these people scrambling into rickety boats and setting sail on the high seas to escape political persecution. The large number of Rohingya refugees rushing to cross illegally into nearby Muslim countries, especially Indonesia and Malaysia, has posed huge humanitarian problems not just to the destination countries and Thailand as a transit country, but also to ASEAN as the regional organisation.
ASEAN countries have always been “constrained by the modus operandi of the grouping, which emphasizes consensus decision-making and non-interference in the internal affairs of its members.”6 It was only when the global outcry became too difficult to ignore that Indonesia and Malaysia said they would provide safe haven to these refugees and give them temporary relief for up to one year, before sending them back to wherever they came from. Myanmar’s refusal to recognise the existence of the Rohingyas as an ethnic minority within the state makes the situation even more problematic: [t]he Rohingya’s lack of citizenship lies at the heart of why they fled to Malaysia [and other countries]… [But] by denying them citizenship, Burma [also known as Myanmar] is violating international law. It is also forcing its neighbours to bear the burden of its actions. Myanmar’s continued refusal to grant any form of recognition to this group makes it a problem for its neighbours. There are, however, other factors that plague this matter and we need to look from a broader perspective at some of the structural problems that persist for the Rohingya in Myanmar.
That said, there is also currently a struggle by the European Union (EU) to accommodate a large infl ux of refugees streaming across European borders en-masse. Australia has also, in recent years, made a concerted effort to stop the influx of refugees making the transit from Indonesia into their country. Neither the EU nor Australia has so far provided a viable solution to the refugee crises that they face.
