A boat of largely Rohingya Muslim asylum-seekers from Myanmar is adrift off the coast of Thailand and Malaysia, after having been turned away from both of those countries and Indonesia. This boat is among many that have been stranded in the Andaman Sea and Straits of Malacca as a result of finger-pointing between South-East Asian countries of who should take responsibility for the thousands of asylum-seekers looking for refuge. Many of the boats have been abandoned by their crews, leaving people on board with no water, food or way to safety.
Malaysia and Indonesia in the past few days have both declared that they will not be accepting any more boats of asylum-seekers, after approximately 1500 arrived on their shores over the last week. On Tuesday the Indonesian navy turned away a boat carrying thousands of asylum-seekers, urging it on to Malaysia, while Malaysia turned away two boats on Wednesday carrying a total of approximately 800 passengers.
The UNHCR (UN Refugee Agency) in a press release on Wednesday expressed serious alarm at reports of these decisions. Volker Türk, UNHCR's Assistant High Commissioner for Protection said, “The first priority is to save lives. Instead of competing to avoid responsibility, it is key for States to share the responsibility to disembark these people immediately."
As Phil Robertson, deputy director of Human Rights Watch's Asia division told the BBC's Newsday: "They're [Malaysia, Thailand and Indonesia] playing a game of marine ping pong not wanting to take in the Rohingya.”
The UNHCR has urged countries in South-East Asia to develop coordinated regional approaches to the current humanitarian crisis.