Asean: Prioritise rights of Rohingya
As ASEAN prepares for its 34th summit in Bangkok from Thursday to June 23, the heads of its member states must keep the Rohingya crisis at the top of their agenda.
With the world’s largest refugee camp now sitting at the doorstep of Asean, the regional dimensions of the crisis can no longer be ignored.
Asean’s demonstrated interest in finding solutions to this complex and protracted crisis is welcome.
But instead of focusing on the repatriation of nearly one million Rohingya refugees from Bangladesh to Myanmar, Asean must work first to address the human rights crisis faced by hundreds of thousands of Rohingya still inside Myanmar.
They must create safe conditions for refugees to return.
