MAY 19 (Eagle News) — Malacanang has assured that the Philippine government will assist Asian migrants who will reach the country’s ports in solidarity with the United Nations convention relating to refugees.
Communication Secretary Herminio Coloma, Jr. issued the statement Monday saying that the Philippine government will help address the plight of runaway Asian migrants, known as ‘boat people’, in accordance with its commitment to the 1951 Convention Relating to the Status of Refugees.
Coloma issued the statement in response to a news reports, saying the Philippines will deny these ‘boat people’ entry into the mainland owing to their lack of pertinent travel documents.
This is reportedly despite a United Nations appeal to Southeast Asian countries like Malaysia, Indonesia, and Thailand to open their ports and welcome these people, who headed out to sea to escape extreme poverty and political persecution in Bangladesh and Myanmar.
“We shall continue to do our share in saving lives under existing and long-standing mechanisms pursuant to our commitments under the Convention,” Coloma said.
Secretary Coloma said the Philippines, as a state party to relevant instruments, such as the 1951 Convention Relating to the Status of Refugees, concretely manifested its solidarity with the United Nations in providing succor and relief to persons involuntarily displaced from their homelands as a consequence of political conflict.
“The Philippines has extended humanitarian assistance to them ‘boat people’ and had even established a processing center for Vietnamese travelers in the seventies,” Coloma said.
He clarified that what was cited in news reports on Monday, May 18, were merely restatements of applicable provisions of existing laws.
According to reports, Malaysia, Indonesia and Thailand have sparked outrage by turning away vessels loaded with migrants from Myanmar’s Rohingya Islamic group and Bangladesh, who were abandoned at sea by smugglers. This has prompted UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon to urge Southeast Asian leaders to “uphold the obligation of rescue at sea”. (with a report from PND)
