Skip to main content
NTv Online

World

World
  • Africa
  • Americas
  • Asia Pacific
  • Europe
  • Mid East
  • More
  • Offbeat
  • South & Central Asia
  • Viral
  • Bangla Version
  • Archive
  • Bangladesh
  • World
  • Sports
  • Entertainment
  • Business
  • Comment
  • Education
  • Life
  • Health
  • Art & Culture
  • Election
  • বাংলা
  • Bangladesh
  • World
  • Sports
  • Entertainment
  • Business
  • Comment
  • Education
  • Life
  • Health
  • Art & Culture
  • Election
  • বাংলা
  • Bangla Version
  • Archive
Follow
  • World
AFP
15 May, 2015, 12:13
Update: 15 May, 2015, 12:13
More News
Coronavirus: Bangladeshi doctor in China donates face masks
N.Korea warns US could 'pay dearly' for human rights criticism
Pervez Musharraf sentenced to death for treason
Devastating fire kills at least 43 in Indian capital
Indian court rules in favour of Hindu temple on disputed land

Myanmar 'unlikely to attend' migrant crisis meeting

AFP
15 May, 2015, 12:13
Update: 15 May, 2015, 12:13
A group of rescued migrants from Myanmar and Bangladesh at a confinement area in the fishing town of Kuala Langsa in Aceh province on 15 May 2015. Photo: AFP

Yangon, Myanmar: Myanmar may snub a regional meeting hosted by Thailand later this month aimed at easing the current Bay of Bengal migrant crisis, the president's office said Friday.

Hundreds of boatpeople have arrived on Thai, Malaysian and Indonesian soil since 1 May, when the discovery of mass graves believed to belong to Bangladeshi and Myanmar migrants in southern Thailand prompted a crackdown on trafficking and smugglers responded by abandoning their human cargo.

Thai authorities, who have been accused of turning a blind eye -- and also complicity in -- the trade, called a 29 May regional meeting in Bangkok to address the ‘root causes’ of the flow of migrants.

Many of those found on boats are Rohingya Muslims from poverty-stricken western Myanmar.

On Friday it accused Thailand of using the regional summit to divert attention from its own issues with people smuggling.

‘We are unlikely to attend... we do not accept it if they (Thailand) are inviting us just to ease the pressure they are facing,’ presidential office director Zaw Htay told AFP.

‘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,’ he added.

The one-day meeting in Bangkok will include officials from 15 countries including Indonesia, Malaysia, Bangladesh, Myanmar as well as Australia and the United States.

The UN says more than 25,000 people, including many Rohingya but also economic migrants from Bangladesh, have made the journey south from the Bay of Bengal between January and March this year.

In recent years, sectarian violence and a web of discriminatory laws against the Rohingya in Buddhist-majority Myanmar have sparked the region's largest exodus of boatpeople since the Vietnam War.

More than 1.3 million Rohingya, a stateless people viewed by the United Nations as one of the world's most persecuted minorities, live in Myanmar's western Rakhine State.

But Myanmar denies them citizenship and even refuses to recognise the Rohingya as an ethnic group, instead labelling them ‘Bengalis’, a code for outsiders.

Earlier this week Zaw Htay said the heart of the migrant crisis was in Bangladesh -- a thinly veiled reference to the perceived roots of the Rohingya.

Deadly communal violence between local Buddhists and Muslim Rohingya in impoverished Rakhine in 2012 left some 200 dead and tens of thousands -- mainly Rohingya -- trapped in squalid camps, catalysing the latest exodus by sea.

The Rohingya trace their ancestry in Myanmar back generations yet they remain blotted out from the nation's official narrative.

Most Read
  1. WHO site shows how they refuse to acknowledge scientific evidence on vaping
  2. Tholos Foundation urges Bangladesh govt not to ban e-cigarettes
  3. India bans service charge at hotels and restaurants
  4. Bangladesh and Australia working towards key trade partners
  5. Bigger and better Mother Language Day Walk
  6. Islamic State loses second leader in two years
Most Read
  1. WHO site shows how they refuse to acknowledge scientific evidence on vaping
  2. Tholos Foundation urges Bangladesh govt not to ban e-cigarettes
  3. India bans service charge at hotels and restaurants
  4. Bangladesh and Australia working towards key trade partners
  5. Bigger and better Mother Language Day Walk
  6. Islamic State loses second leader in two years

Follow Us

Alhaj Mohammad Mosaddak Ali

Chairman & Managing Director

NTV Online, BSEC Building (Level-8), 102 Kazi Nazrul Islam Avenue, Karwan Bazar, Dhaka-1215 Telephone: +880255012281 up to 5, Fax: +880255012286 up to 7

Browse by Category

  • About NTV
  • NTV Programmes
  • Advertisement
  • Web Mail
  • NTV FTV
  • Satellite Downlink
  • Europe Subscription
  • USA Subscription
  • Privacy Policy
  • Terms & Conditions
  • Contact

Our Newsletter

To stay on top of the ever-changing world of business, subscribe now to our newsletters.

* We hate spam as much as you do

Alhaj Mohammad Mosaddak Ali

Chairman & Managing Director

NTV Online, BSEC Building (Level-8), 102 Kazi Nazrul Islam Avenue, Karwan Bazar, Dhaka-1215 Telephone: +880255012281 up to 5, Fax: +880255012286 up to 7

Reproduction of any content, news or article published on this website is strictly prohibited. All rights reserved