Philippines offers refuge to desperate migrants trapped on boats

Government in Manila becomes first in the region to offer safe haven to thousands of refugees and migrants stranded on Asia’s seas

The Philippines has signalled it is ready to take in thousands of migrants who are stranded on Asia’s seas, the first country to offer shelter after its south-east Asian neighbours blocked them from entering.

Manila, a signatory to the United Nation’s refugee convention, said it would help as it denied a local report claiming that the Philippines planned to push back boats carrying some 8,000 people fleeing persecution in Burma and poverty in Bangladesh.

“The Philippines has extended humanitarian assistance to ... ‘boat people’ and had even established a processing centre for Vietnamese travellers in the 70s,” said Herminio Coloma, a spokesman for the president, Benigno Aquino.

“We shall continue to do our share in saving lives under existing and long-standing mechanisms pursuant to our commitments under the [UN] convention.”

It would be a long and unlikely journey for the migrants – who are believed to be in the region of the Andaman Sea – to make it to the Philippines on their rickety boats with little food and fuel.

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Azmin Ali, You're Guilty

It looks like Azmin Ali is trying very hard to dig himself out of a quicksand. But no matter how hard he tried to spin himself out of this situation, he is basically guilty. Being a Menteri Besar he should have known that using a word like "barua" is a no no. Even if it's in a form of a question. Although it's pretty clear that the questioning itself is a type of provocation done sarcastically.

Surely we have seen this before. Our own Prime Minister used to cursed during one of his speeches at Felda. And so did some of our parliament members during a heated argument. But is that the right thing to do? Of course not. They are public figures and shouldn't be cursing at people they don't like, or don't agree with. I'm sure that behind closed door, everybody curses, especially them politicians. Najib is probably fuckin cursing his ass off right now because of the Tabung Haji gate. Hey, curse all you want pappi as long as it's not on record or in public. That's the rule.

Personally I have nothing good to say about our IGP either. He's a total d-head and definitely got his head stuck way up in his ass. Plain and simple, he is the epidemy of an UMNO's "barua". But luckily for me, I do not get paid to be in their positions as a public figure, nor to abide to such a rule.


AA