Indonesia said Friday that it would consider granting refugee status to hundreds of Muslim migrants from Myanmar and urged other countries to stop abusing them and casting them out to sea. In an about-turn from the government's previous line that the Rohingya men were economic migrants, Foreign Minister Hassan Wirajuda said they could have claims to refugee protection due to religious persecution.
The United Nations refugee agency (UNHCR) would be allowed access to the roughly 400 men who were rescued in desperate conditions off northern Sumatra in two boats in recent weeks, he said, reversing an earlier refusal.
The change of tone comes days after 198 desperate migrants from Myanmar were rescued by fishermen off northern Sumatra and told journalists they were abused and dumped at sea by Thai security forces. Their allegations backed up claims made by ethnic Rohingya migrants from another group of about 200 which was found off Sumatra on January 7, but which were dismissed by Jakarta and flatly denied by Bangkok.