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UN Secretary General Ban
Ki-moon (C) and his wife (L) are welcomed at the Diplomatic Academy of Vietnam,
in Hanoi, on May 23, 2015 ©Hoang Dinh Nam (AFP)
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United Nations chief Ban Ki-moon said on Saturday that saving
the lives of migrants stranded at sea in Southeast Asia should be a "top
priority" as the region battles with an exodus of boat people fleeing
persecution and poverty.
The UN Secretary General
said he hoped regional nations would tackle the "root causes" of the
current exodus at an upcoming conference in Thailand later this month.
AFP report continues:
"But when people are
drifting on the sea, how we can search and rescue them and provide lifesaving
humanitarian assistance, that is a top priority at this time," he told
reporters during a visit to Hanoi.
Ban said he had been in
recent discussions with regional leaders in Thailand, Malaysia and Myanmar and
urged a "very clear addressing of the root causes of this issue, why
people are fleeing".
Ban's comments come as
Myanmar faces growing international pressure to address its treatment of the
country's 1.3 million Rohingya minority Muslims.
The widespread
persecution of the impoverished community in western Rakhine state is one of
the primary causes for the current regional exodus, alongside growing numbers
trying to escape poverty in neighbouring Bangladesh.
Most migrants aim for
Malaysia and Indonesia through dangerous and lucrative smuggling networks that
criss-cross the region.
Ban also called on
countries who receive migrants "not to send them back to a dangerous
circumstance or situation".
Thailand
has organized a regional conference in Bangkok on 29 May to address the crisis.
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