COMMENTARY
'Govt extends migrants' detention another 6 months'' read the headline in this newspaper on Friday. And readers will certainly see a similar headline again six months from now.
The bottom line is Thailand is very frustrated that it can see no light at the end of the tunnel in the Rohingya problem. And the problem looks to worsen after the monsoon season ends around October, when voyages out to the sea by this minority group fleeing the ethnic clashes in Myanmar are likely to resume. Their boats head south from Rakhine State towards Thailand or Malaysia.
The first deadline for the Muslim Rohingya migrants to be deported has passed and the government has no choice but to grant them another six months to stay.
The big headache for authorities from those in charge of security, foreign policy and immigration is where to send them.
Thailand was praised by other countries and international organisations for sheltering the last batch of boat people who began arriving last year. There are now around 1,700 Rohingya kept in detention centres, mostly in southern provinces. The total number of the refugees in Thailand is closer to 2,000 if all illegals and runaways are counted.
The Rohingya influx has given corrupt authorities a chance to abuse them in several ways, including extorting their money in exchange for allowing them to land on shore.
Thailand is stuck as to what to do next with the refugees. The government obviously cannot force them back on humanitarian grounds. The Rohingya have no desire to return to face the harsh conditions of where they came from and, more importantly, the Myanmar government is happy to see them leave instead of welcoming them back anyway.
The Myanmar government is deploying the same tactic it used for the ethnic Karen years ago. Its authorities demand verification of the Rohingya detained in Thailand before accepting them back. Their grounds are that not all of them began their journey from the southwestern state. They could have sailed from neighbouring Bangladesh.
This step alone certainly could take years, given the difficulty in verifying the migrants' identification _ and that's even if authorities could find such. More importantly, Myanmar authorities feel no urgency in completing the nationality identification process.
When Foreign Minister Surapong Tovichakchaikul urged Myanmar Foreign Minister Wunna Muang Lwin to hurry up the checks in mid-August, the reply was simple and predictable.
Myanmar officials had determined that only 10% of the Rohingya migrants detained in Thailand were from Myanmar, while they believed the others were Bangladeshis as they could not speak the Burmese language, nor identify where in Myanmar they came from, Wunna Muang Lwin was quoted as saying.
Bilateral talks will never work. Trying to bring in outsiders like Bangladesh, the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, or Muslim countries will not work either, as nobody is keen to see the Rohingya returned until the situation in Rakhine improves, and no third countries want to take them in.
Hope rests on peer pressure from fellow Asean member nations to press Myanmar in one voice to seriously tackle this problem.
However, the plight of the fleeing Rohingya has not yet been seriously addressed by Asean as a common concern. The member states still prefer to watch from the sidelines as long as the issue is not seen as a regional threat.
Thailand could try to convince the other member states to place the problem on the regional agenda. Then again, that could prove to be a bumpy road for the kingdom, at least in the near term, because Myanmar will chair the bloc next year for the first time after being accepted to the group in 1997.
Nay Pyi Taw does not want the Rohingya issue to disturb its chairmanship and will not want to see it raised during regional meetings.
Time obviously is not on the Thai side to settle this issue with Myanmar, or even with itself. Plans to relocate the boat people to refugee camps in Ratchaburi and Tak along the Myanmar border are not welcomed by locals, who have seen enough of Myanmar migrants fleeing ethnic fighting across the border in the past years and decades.
Call it a dilemma, and expect to see the same headlines repeat again and again.
Saritdet Marukatat is Digital Media News Editor, Bangkok Post
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