©The Sun (Used by permission)
Ashwin Kumar
PETALING JAYA: The Malaysian government must consider allowing Rohingya and Bangladeshi refugees to land on Malaysian shores to prevent a human catastrophe, said the Malaysian Bar Council.
Its president Steven Thiru said in the 1970s, the authorities sheltered the Vietnamese boat people to prevent suffering and loss of human life regardless of the status of the refugees.
“We must allow these boats to land, document (those on board) and provide them with basic amenities,” he said in a statement today.
Steven said although it may seem “unneighbourly” to accuse a fellow Asean government of wrongful conduct, it cannot be disputed that the Rohingyas have not been granted citizenship in Myanmar, thereby rendering them stateless.
He said Malaysia has indirectly contributed to the exacerbation of this problem by neglecting the matter for many years.
“As such, the Bar welcomes that the Malaysian government has scheduled a meeting with the governments of Indonesia and Thailand to discuss the situation,” he added.
However, he said it is critical to address this issue head–on and Malaysia, as the chair of Asean, must be an example and lead the way forward.
He added that the Bar is urging Putrajaya to immediately engage with the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees in Kuala Lumpur to put into place a system of receiving and registering the latest wave of boat people, and to find a place of transition where they can land and their claims for refugee status documented and determined, followed by either repatriation or resettlement.
With Malaysia being a member of the UN Security Council, the Bar urged the Malaysian government to move a resolution for intervention in this crisis of alleged ethnic cleansing of Rohingyas from Myanmar, Steven said.
He pointed out that it is also time for Asean put aside their principle of non–interference in the internal affairs of fellow member states.