Regional cooperation lacking in Rohingya migrant crisis

In a policy reversal last week, Indonesia and Malaysia offered Rohingya migrants from Burma temporary sanctuary. But other Pacific nations, including Thailand and Australia, say offers of asylum merely encourage human trafficking.

More than 3,000 of the Muslim-minority Rohingya have landed in Malaysia and Indonesia so far this month, while up to 2,000 vulnerable people are thought still to be stranded at sea.

Malaysia, Indonesia and Thailand have been heavily criticised for refusing to take in the boats, most of which are overloaded with exhausted passengers who lack access to food and clean water.

In his first public comments on the crisis, President Joko Widodo on Saturday relented, saying that offering the migrants temporary asylum was the right solution. Indonesia began search-and-rescueoperations last week.

Indonesian fishermen have also rescued hundreds of migrants, with another 433 brought to shore last week. Approximately 1,800 migrants are now in the country.

Indonesia’s National Disaster Mitigation Agency announced on Sunday that it would begin repatriating 720 Bangladeshi migrants over the next month. The costs of repatriation will be covered by the office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees and the UN’s International Organization for Migration, said agency spokesman Sutopo Purwo Nugroho.

Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak on Thursday also ordered his country's navy to rescue migrants adrift at sea, saying they would be offered temporary sanctuary on Malaysian shores provided they could be repatriated within a year.

"We have to prevent loss of life," Najib said in a tweet.