KUALA LUMPUR/KOH LIPE—Malaysia prodded Myanmar on Sunday to halt the exodus from its shores as concern grew for uncounted migrants adrift in rickety boats around the Andaman Sea.
The United Nations has called on Southeast Asian nations not to push back the boatloads of Rohingya Muslims from Myanmar and Bangladeshis - men, women and children who fled persecution and poverty at home, and now face sickness and starvation at sea.
Malaysia, which says it has already taken in 120,000 illegal migrants from Myanmar, has made it clear that it wants no more and its deputy prime minister said on Sunday that Myanmar must now take responsibility.
"What is the responsibility of the Myanmar government ... is there any humanitarian aspect for them to solve this matter internally?" Muhyiddin Yassin told a news conference, adding that the burden should not fall on other members of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN).
Foreign Minister Anifah Aman told reporters that Malaysia, as current chair of ASEAN, was hoping to discuss the crisis with Myanmar "before it is brought to the international level".
An estimated 25,000 Bangladeshis and Rohingya boarded smugglers' boats in the first three months of this year, twice as many as in the same period of 2014, the UNHCR has said.
A clampdown by Thailand's military junta has made a well-trodden trafficking route into Malaysia - one of Southeast Asia's wealthiest economies - too risky for criminals who prey on Rohingya fleeing oppression in Buddhist-majority Myanmar and
on Bangladeshis looking for better livelihoods abroad.
REUTERS
