Myanmar’s Rohingya crisis exposes ASEAN weaknesses: Report
Al JazeeraOct 20, 2020
The UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR) praised the Sri Lankan Navy and local fishermen on Monday for rescuing approximately 105 Rohingya refugees from a boat in distress over the weekend. UNHCR reiterated that all states in the region must act to prevent deaths at sea.
The Sri Lankan navy stated that the boat had a mechanical failure while carrying them from Myanmar to Indonesia.
The Rohingya people have desperately risked their lives crossing the ocean for years, trying to find a safe place to live after suffering human rights abuses in Myanmar. This crisis has exposed structural flaws in the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), as its rules made it possible for Myanmar to prevent regional powers from investigating the scale of human rights abuses and taking action to halt them.
It is hypocritical to criticize solely ASEAN when Western democracies have done nothing to help the Rohingya — even though the International Court of Justice has long called for measures to protect those persecuted. While this is likely to be a consequence of fears that Myanmar would strengthen ties with Beijing if pressed, not acting to preserve the universal validity of human rights can only damage the West's reputation — the plight of the Rohingya at sea are the world's responsibility.