NewsRohingya Update, Migrant Crisis, Myanmar Update, Rohingya Crisis, human trafficking, U.S. Assistant Secretary of State Anne Richard, President Obama
Jun 02, 2015 01:44 AM EDT
U.S. Assistant Secretary of State Anne Richard has persistently pleaded Myanmar to give citizenship to Rohingya refugees who flee from oppression.
Anne Richard said that having Rohingya Muslim's resettlement in a third world country is not the solution to the growing number of boat people in South East Asia.
Richard, who is on a 3-day visit to Malaysia, said that "peace and stability" is the solution to the migrant crisis. Resettling refugees to the US will not solve the issue but rather entice others to do the same and run off from their mother country.
Since early May, there are 4,600 boat people who are rescued from Myanmar and Bangladesh. There are still more than several thousand who are stranded in the Southeast Asian water after human smugglers were driven out from their boat in the aftermath of a regional crackdown.
US President Obama on the other hand said that Myanmar must take seriously the concern of how it deals with the Rohingya refugees. How Myanmar treats them might spoil its transition from a military dictatorship to a democratic form of government.
The US President, who are speaking to a group of young Asians that are invited to visit White house, said that the US was zeroing in on making certain that these boat men are relocated.
Rohingya people have been a subject to human trafficking and are not recognized as an ethnic group of Myanmar. The Myanmar government argued that the Rohingya, who constitutes the majority involved on this migrant crisis, are Bangladeshis. However, the Bangladesh does not acknowledge them as citizens as well.
As stated by Human Rights Watch, the Rohingyas who have dwelled in Myanmar for generations are "victim of an ongoing ethnic cleansing."
In the conclusion of US Assistant Sec. of State Anne Richard visit to Malaysia, she expressed the US concern about Rohangya's human rights. The Rohingyas suffer tremendous persecution in Rakhine.
While in Malaysia last month, Richard had visited around 1,100 Rohingya and Bangladeshi immigrants who were temporarily sheltered in Malaysia.
Malaysia and Indonesia, which were reportedly rejecting the migrants coming off shore, now agree to give shelter to immigrants for a limited time and that these boat men will be relocated in within a year.