Salvage the sea-trapped people with utmost urgency

We are deeply worried at the reports that after a long two weeks boats full of Bangladeshi and Rohingya immigrants are still stranded at the Bay of Bengal and Andaman sea. Due to lack of access to urgently needed food, water, and medical assistance many of them have already perished and others if not succoured soon enough would go the same way. It is a man-made humanitarian disaster that all concerned must make a common cause to mitigate without further ado.  

Meanwhile, Philippines and Gambia have offered help to give shelter to these floating people and the International Organisation for Migration (IOM) has assured repatriation of Bangladeshis to their homeland. But the pressing need of the moment is to arrange safe landing of these floating people to a nearby country as Indonesia, Malaysia and Thailand are turning away the boats. There has been very little progress in that sphere. 

As for Bangladesh, it is disconcerting that the Foreign Ministry, Home Ministry and Expatriate Welfare Ministry instead of coordinating to address the problem of salvaging the victims are passing the buck to each other. If the inter-ministerial committee to counter human trafficking had worked effectively we might not have had such a problem on our hand in the first place. 

We urge the government to make a coordinated effort in the whole salvage operation ranging from mobilising international support to arranging immediate landing of the boats to safer places to eventual repatriation of Bangladeshis to their homeland. Time is of the essence.