Chittagong, Bangladesh: Bangladesh has been invited to join a regional meeting on human trafficking and people smuggling issues to begin in Thailand on 29 May according to the 15 May issue of the Financial Express of Bangladesh.
The special meeting will discuss the fast increasing exodus of migrants through the Bay of Bengal and the people drifting in boats without food and water in Malacca Strait and the coast of South-East Asia.
The Thai foreign ministry said high officials from 15 countries including Bangladesh, Myanmar, Indonesia, Malaysia, hosts Thailand, Australia, and the USA will meet in Bangkok on 29 May to discuss the human trafficking crisis.
"The Thai government will host an international conference on “unusual” migration in the Indian Ocean on 29 May in Bangkok, Thailand has invited countries such as Australia, Indonesia, Malaysia, Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar, Vietnam, Bangladesh etc", the deputy government spokesman Major General Sansern Kaewkamnerd said.
“The special meeting is an urgent call for the region to work together to address the unprecedented increase of irregular migration,” the ministry said in a statement, according to the Bangkok Post.
"It is now urgent for Bangladesh to hold talks immediately with Myanmar, Thailand and Malaysia to bust the regional trafficking Syndicates operating in this human trade", the Financial Express stated.
It is hard to understand how they could evade the watchful eyes of the Coast Guards, the Border Guard Bangladesh (BGB), and other security forces in Cox’s Bazar and other Coastal areas and go on disastrous journeys.
Furthermore, massive mass awareness programs in the coastal districts of Bangladesh need to be carried out so that people are not deceived by traffickers anymore.
This crisis has unquestionably been caused by the Burmese Government and its appalling treatment of a segment and its own population whom it treats as intruders.
However, Zaw Htay, director of Myanmar’s presidential office, said his leaders would not attend if the word “Rohingya” was used in the invitation, as they did not recognize the term.
Major Zaw Htay, the director of the office of Myanmar’s president said to the Associated Press News Agency (AP): “We are not ignoring the migrant problem, but our leaders will decide whether to attend the meeting based on what is going to be discussed.” He added: “We will not accept the allegations by some that Myanmar is the source of the problem.”
“It is international organizations which have to talk with Myanmar, rather than put pressure on Thailand to shoulder the sole responsibility of looking after migrants,” said Prime Minister Prayuth Chan-o-cha, responding to a report that Myanmar may snub the regional conference to be held in Bangkok on 29 May to address the “root causes” of the flow of migrants, according to the Bangkok Post.
“We cannot force any country to attend. Every country is equal in dignity. Thailand is only in the middle of the [migrants’] route. We only hope to bring peace to the region,” General Prayuth said.
The Burmese presidential office director Zaw Htay said: “The root cause [of the crisis] is increasing human trafficking. The problem of the migrant graves is not a Myanmar problem. It’s because of the weakness of human-trafficking prevention and the rule of law in Thailand.”
“However, international organisations must find out where the migrants come from and what hardships they face, and why they have to migrate. If they are poor, should this be fixed?,” Gen Prayuth added, according to the Bangkok Post.
