TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - The ASEAN Parliamentarians for Human Rights (APHR) urged Interior Ministers of ASEAN member countries, which plan to meet in Kuala Lumpur on July 2, 2015, to take firm action in combating human trafficking, protect vulnerable asylum seekers, and address causes of the continuing migrant crisis, including the persecution of Rohingya in Myanmar.

The meeting was held in response to the recent surge of migrants that made the news headlines last May, causing representatives from 17 countries to convene in Bangkok to discuss the crisis.

"A month after the meeting in Bangkok, little has been achieved," said APHR Chairperson Charles Santiago, a member of parliament from Malaysia. "Vulnerable asylum seekers and economic migrants remain without basic provisions, and human traffickers continue to conduct their despicable work unpunished."

The APHR underlined that ASEAN must develop a plan to help the migrants and provide them with needed humanitarian assistance, including providing asylum seekers with refugee screening procedures.

"This crisis is far from over," Santiago warned. "Focusing only on policing borders and attempting to address this issue as a simple matter of law and order would be shortsighted. Cracking down on human trafficking rings must be a component of the regional response, but ASEAN must also address the needs of their victims."

APHR also reiterated its call for ASEAN states to ratify the UN refugee convention and to develop a binding regional agreement on human trafficking, as well as a regional refugee framework.

MAHINDA ARKYASA