From National Public Radio
by Scott Neuman
The spectacle of thousands of desperate Rohingya Muslim “boat people” being denied landfall in Southeast Asia has laid bare the region’s religious and ethnic prejudices as well as its fears of being swamped by an influx of migrants.
An estimated 6,000 or more such migrants are stranded at sea in Southeast Asia. Most of the people on the overcrowded and unseaworthy boats are thought to belong to the 1.3 million-strong Rohingya minority in Buddhist-majority Myanmar. Others are believed to be from Bangladesh.
Reuters reports that while nearly 800 migrants on one boat were brought ashore Friday in Indonesia, other boats crammed full of people were turned away.
Such refusals underline “the hardening of Southeast Asia governments’ stance on the boatloads of Rohingya Muslims fleeing persecution in Myanmar,” Reuters says. The Rohingya practice a blend of Sunni and Sufi Islam.
‘No Stomach’ For Migrants
At best, the migrants have been received with resignation — at worst with contempt — even by the region’s Muslim nations. As we’ve reported recently, many are victims of human traffickers.
The Thai and Malaysian navies have both turned away refugee boats in recent days. Indonesia has taken in some migrants but is now refusing to accept them.
Predominantly Buddhist Thailand has been battling an Islamist insurgency in its south for decades and has “no stomach” for bringing in more Muslims, says Lex Rieffel, a nonresident senior fellow and expert on Southeast Asia at the Brookings Institution.
In any case, the country has a long history of dealing with unwanted migrants fleeing conflict in Cambodia and has no desire to repeat that, Rieffel says.
“If they break the law and land in Thailand, how can we take care of them?” Thai Prime Minister Prayuth Chan-ocha told reporters Thursday. “Where will the budget come from? That money will need to come from Thai people’s taxes, right?”
For Indonesia and Malaysia, both Muslim-majority countries, the issue is less clear-cut, Rieffel says, but they are also interested in avoiding the appearance that they are opening the gates.
“We will try to prevent them from entering our territory, otherwise it will create social issues,” Reuters quotes Indonesia’s military chief Gen. Moeldoko as telling reporters. “If we open up access, there will be an exodus here.”
