No: 160, 20 May 2015

Turkey’s initiatives at the regional and international level continue in order to ensure a rapid response to the tragedy of thousands of Rohingyas and Bengalis, who, as they were being taken from Myanmar and Bangladesh to Indonesia and Thailand by human traffickers, were stranded in the Andaman Sea in their boats.

In this context, we have pledged 1 million US dollars to the International Organization for Migration and the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees to be used for humanitarian assistance to the Rohingyas and Bengalis.

Turkey is also exploring the possibilities of conducting a humanitarian aid operation to ensure the direct delivery of humanitarian assistance to the Rohingyas and Bengalis stranded at sea.

Our contacts with international organizations, including the United Nations, the Organization of Islamic Cooperation, the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, and the International Organization for Migration as well as with regional countries such as Malaysia and Indonesia continue at the highest level.

It is the humanitarian and moral duty of the international community to mobilize all capabilities with a view to finding a solution to this tragedy.

Turkey is also ready to do its utmost to help the Rohingyas and Bengalis in the face of this terrible situation.

We welcome the pledge made by Indonesia and Malaysia during the meeting of the Foreign Ministers of Malaysia, Indonesia and Thailand held in Kuala Lumpur on 20 May 2015 to temporarily host the people stranded at sea. All of our relevant institutions and organizations, particularly AFAD and the Turkish Red Crescent, have already mobilized their efforts to deliver humanitarian aid to Indonesia and Malaysia.

As the world’s largest humanitarian donor with respect to national income and fully cognizant of its humanitarian duties and responsibilities, Turkey will continue to mobilize all efforts to deliver humanitarian aid to the people in need in a most rapid and effective manner, wherever they are in the world. As humanitarian crises such as this one painfully demonstrate, there is an urgent need to make the global humanitarian system more efficient.