Australia’s former immigration minister says suggestions countries in the region can resettle persecuted Rohingya miss the scale of the problem

This article is more than 5 years old

This article is more than 5 years old

Australia’s social services minister, Scott Morrison, says people who suggest countries in the region can resettle persecuted Rohingya misunderstand the scale of the problem.



Thousands of people are stranded on boats, in camps and at sea in south east Asia.



There were reports on Saturday that the foreign affairs minister, Julie Bishop, had been told by Indonesian officials that only about 30-40% were Rohingya refugees and the rest were illegal workers from Bangladesh seeking jobs in Malaysia.



Morrison, who was previously the immigration minister, said he wasn’t privy to the reported discussion and could not confirm the reports.



Morrison said he had visited Rohingya displacement camps and the issue was more complex than advocates made out.



“There’s a million Rohingya in Myanmar [Burma]. The suggestion that somehow resettlement is the answer to that issue, I think completely misunderstands what is happening in that part of the world,” he said in Sydney on Saturday.

Bishop met with other foreign ministers in Seoul, where Indonesian officials passed on their intelligence about the stranded migrants.

“They [Indonesia] believe there are about 7,000 people at sea [and] they think about 30-40% are Rohingya, the rest are Bangladeshi; and they are not, in Indonesia’s words, asylum seekers, they are not refugees, they are illegal labourers, they’ve been promised or are seeking jobs in Malaysia,” Bishop told the Australian.

The vice president of the Bangladesh Association of New South Wales, Dr Farouk Iqbal, said it was possible some were Rohingya with counterfeit passports.



It wass common for displaced people to move in and out of Bangladesh, he said.



“If somebody pays a bribe then they can get a national ID and passport easily,” Iqbal, who has visited displacement camps with the UN, said.



About 3,000 people have so far been pulled ashore in Indonesia, Malaysia and Thailand.



Rohingya refugees are being offered temporary shelter for one year. It’s likely most Bangladeshis will be repatriated.

Countries in the region say they’ll step up efforts to help Burma stop the flow of Rohingya refugees.



The immigration minister, Peter Dutton, was forced to defend Australia’s decision not to help settle those caught up in the crisis.



“There are about 20 million people who are displaced around the world. We can help some but we can’t help everybody,” he told Channel Nine on Saturday.



Labor’s immigration spokesman, Matt Thistlethwaite, said countries had the right to remove people who were not found to be refugees under UN convention.



“That’s the reason why there’s a process that’s undertaken through the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, so people are accessed in accordance with the convention Australia is a signatory to.”

Dozens of asylum seeker advocates gathered at a twilight rally in Brisbane on Friday night to call on the government to take in the stranded Rohingya.

More than 100 supporters gathered in King George Square on Friday to hear from members of the state’s Rohingya community.



The Rohingyas have been subjected to the Burmese government’s “systematic and ongoing persecution of minorities” for decades, spokesman Sujauddin Karimuddin said.



“The Rohingyas are stigmatised as illegal migrants from Bangladesh, although they have been living in the land for centuries,” he said.



“These accusations of being illegal have opened them up to harassment and physical and verbal abuses on the streets.”



The humanitarian disaster was a direct result of the persecution, he said.



He urged the crowd to put themselves in the shoes of those stranded at sea. “Every second, every moment they are living in a sea of rejection from the world.”

The group called on the Australian government to end its policy of turning back asylum seeker boats and offer resettlement to the stranded.



The prime minister, Tony Abbott, flatly ruled out the possibility on Wednesday.