UN asks countries to keep ports open

LANGSA (Indonesia), May 15 (Agencies): About 900 Rohingya and Bangladeshi migrants made it to shore in Indonesia and Thailand Friday, as Myanmar undermined calls for a coordinated response to Southeast Asia's human-trafficking crisis by threatening to boycott a planned summit.
About 800 Rohingya and Bangladeshi migrants were rescued off Indonesia Friday.
In Thailand, the navy discovered 106 Rohingya on an island off the coast of Phang Na province but it was unclear whether their boat had a problem or they had been abandoned, the provincial governor said.
Earlier Friday, a boat carrying about 300 Rohingya left Thailand's waters, a Thai official said, after authorities repaired its engine and provided food.
Hundreds more migrants were aboard a boat that was intercepted offshore by Indonesia's navy, a military spokesman said, while authorities worked out what to do with it.
The Indonesian and Malaysian policy of turning away stricken boats filled with Bangladeshis and ethnic Rohingya from Myanmar has been met with outrage, including from Washington and the United Nations.
Activists estimate up to 8,000 migrants may be at sea in Southeast Asia, with horrific tales emerging of passengers abandoned by abusive smugglers, horribly cramped conditions, starvation and death.
Meanwhile, the United Nations has urged Southeast Asian leaders to keep their orders and ports open to thousands stranded on smugglers' boats between the Andaman Sea and the Straits of Malacca.
A statement said Friday UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon was 46alarmed by reports that some countries may be reftising entry to boats carrying refugees and migrants".
In the statement, Ban also urged governments in the region to uphold the obligation of rescue at sea and maintain the prohibition on 'refoulement'.
The Office of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) has also expressed concern over reports suggesting that Indonesia and Malaysia may have pushed back boats carrying people from Myanmar and Bangladesh.
It urged the governments of the region to tackle the issue with 'human consequences.
Another report from Geneva adds, the flow of desperate migrants across the Bay of Bengal will continue unless Myanmar ends discrimination against its Rohingya Muslim minority, UN human rights chief Zeid Ra'ad Al Hussein said on Friday.
"Until the Myanmar government addresses the institutional discrimination against the Rohingya population, including equal access to citizenship, this precarious migration will continue," he said in a statement.
Zeid said the situation in Myanmar's Rakhine state, the origin of many of the migrants, was "one of the principal motivators of these desperate maritime movements".
Meanwhile, in his first public comments on the issue, Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak said he was "very concerned with the plight of migrants" but gave no indication of a policy shift on an issue that has caused regional finger-pointing.
"We are in contact with all relevant parties, with whom we share the desire to find a solution to this crisis," he said in a statement, without elaborating.
The unfolding humanitarian crisis appears to have been precipitated by a Thai police crackdown that has thrown busy people-smuggling routes into chaos just as a surge of migrants has taken to the sea.
Indonesian police said at least 797 people were rescued Friday by fisherman in Aceh province on the east coast of huge Sumatra Island.
Search and rescue officials said it was not immediately clear whether they had come from the same boat. Many passengers said their vessel headed towards Indonesia after earlier being driven away by Malaysia, according to police.
At least 61 children were ferried to shore by Indonesian fishermen.
Nearly 600 migrants were already sheltering in Aceh after managing to get ashore in recent days.