An Asean tragedy that's costing lives and suffering
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They call it the chaos theory. An arbitrarily small change in initial conditions can cause a significant difference in the future.
The current deluge of illegal immigrants from Myanmar and Bangladesh is testimony to that.
Myanmar’s rejection of Rohingyas as valid citizens started the cycle going. Stateless, these people were ripe for exploitation by unscrupulous syndicates.
The syndicates had no qualms about exploiting them, and thousands have since fallen victim.
In recent days, at least 1,000 have arrived in Langkawi in boats meant to hold a dozen people, while about 900 more have been rescued off the coast of Acheh. Many more are believed to be still at sea.
They are among the thousands who flee the difficult conditions back home in the hope of finding better lives in places like Malaysia.
Part of their perilous journeys is via Thailand, but an ongoing Thai government crackdown on human trafficking, focusing on the border with Malaysia, has caused the jittery traffickers to take to the sea with the immigrants to escape detection, or worse, to abandon their human cargo.
Although already paid for their services, these heartless gangsters think nothing of setting adrift vessels full of immigrants, including women and children, with a scant supply of food and water, and with little ability to navigate their way to safety.
If they are lucky – the word “lucky” is used here in the loosest sense – they reach a shore or get help before they perish.
However, try as they may, some of these boat people cannot outrun misfortune. There are multiple accounts of immigrants succumbing to illness, exhaustion or beatings by the smugglers, and their bodies tossed overboard.
The fear now is that if nothing is done soon to locate those still at sea, all that may be found are bloated bodies washed ashore and boats laden with corpses.
There is an Asean context to this tragic chain of events. Most of these immigrants are ethnic minorities from Myanmar, mostly Rohingyas.
Some may have left their country in search of jobs, but the others want refuge.
As at end February, there were more than 152,000 refugees and asylum seekers registered with the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees in Malaysia. Almost 93 per cent are from Myanmar.
The tough enforcement in Thailand seems to have shifted (and probably worsened) the problem of the smuggling of migrants.
Indonesia is not accepting them, just giving them water and food and pointing them towards Malaysia.
Malaysia now has to deal with boatloads of illegal immigrants, in a repeat of the Vietnamese boat-people crisis decades ago.
This problem should not be Malaysia’s alone. It’s a regional one.
Thailand has called for talks to address Southeast Asia’s human trafficking trade. Malaysia and Myanmar have responded positively. That is certainly a good start, as there is an urgent need to address the issue.
Back in July 2009, the Asean foreign ministers asked the grouping’s secretariat to monitor the Rohingya situation.
Three years later, then Asean secretary-general Surin Pitsuwan said: “We will keep our eyes and ears on the plight of these unfortunate people.”
Clearly, it is time to do a lot more than that. The syndicates must be stopped, and the fleeing thousands housed. Asean countries have another boat-people disaster brewing off their shores. This problem has to be nipped now if we want to avoid a tragedy that could cost thousands of lives.
