Their boat was first spotted on Thursday when it was
stranded with a broken engine, but then went missing.Thousands of Bangladeshi
and Rohingya migrants are adrift in the Andaman Sea, some without food or
water.
Malaysia and Indonesia have now said they will offer
migrants immediate temporary shelter.
Foreign ministers from the two countries plus Thailand
have been holding emergency talks in Malaysia's capital, Kuala Lumpur.
Speaking after the talks ended, Malaysian Foreign
Minister Anifah Aman said his country and Indonesia would stop towing the boats
into other territories as navies have been doing in recent days.
He said we "need to assist these people" and
that "because of the conditions they are experiencing we are willing to
take them on to our shores".
However, he said they would not actively search for
migrants, only provide temporary shelter if they came ashore, and under the
condition that the international community would help to repatriate or resettle
them within a year.Thailand was not part of the announcement and has not yet
commented.
'Towed out'
On Wednesday, fishermen had rescued more than 400
migrants off the coast of Aceh, in northern Indonesia.Those who came ashore
said they were starving and had been at sea for weeks after being abandoned by
people smugglers.
The migrants on board the abandoned ship found last
week told activists they had been towed out to sea three times by the Thai and
Malaysian navies. They said had been given food and water by Thai officials
No comments:
Post a Comment