ASIA/PHILIPPINES - "Ready to welcome the Rohingya migrants": State and Church agree

Tuesday, 19 May 2015

Manila (Agenzia Fides) - The Philippines is ready to welcome about three thousand ethnic Rohingya refugees from Myanmar and Bangladesh, adrift in the Bay of Bengal, rejected by all other Southeast Asian countries. Both the State and the Catholic Church agree. The Minister for Communications, Herminio Coloma, stressed that the Philippines signed the 1951 Convention related to the Status of Refugees, pledging to "provide assistance and relief to people involuntarily displaced from their lands due to conflict". "We will continue to do our part to save lives", Coloma stressed, recalling that in the 70s the Philippines already welcomed the Vietnamese "boat people" who fled their country after the Vietnam War.
Even father Socrates Mesiona, National Director of the Pontifical Mission Societies in the Philippines, appreciates the government's position and agrees: "It is our duty to welcome these people: if necessary, we will welcome them and will try to ensure them a decent life. They are human beings and children of God, created in the image and likeness of God. The fact that they are Muslim does not create any problem and does not change the state of things. As the gospel teaches us, we are ready to give them hospitality".
The Southeast Asian countries are under pressure to resolve the crisis of thousands of migrants belonging to the Rohingya Muslim minority, who are adrift in the sea of the Andaman Islands, after Indonesia, Malaysia and Thailand decided to reject them. Many Rohingya flee from Burma, where they are not granted citizenship and where they are not recognized holders of fundamental rights.
After international pressure to resolve the humanitarian crisis, an emergency meeting between the foreign ministers of Malaysia, Thailand and Indonesia will be held on 20 May in Kuala Lumpur to discuss the emergency of migrants. Last week more than 2,500 Bangladeshi and Burmese Rohingya landed on the coasts of the three countries and, according to the latest estimates, there are five thousand still missing in the Andaman Sea, without food or water. Authorities in Kuala Lumpur, Jakarta and Bangkok have decided to adopt a policy of rejections. (PA) (Agenzia Fides 19/05/2015)


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