Obama says Myanmar needs to end discrimination of Rohingya to succeed

US is focused on making sure Rohingya who have been subject to human trafficking or are adrift at sea are relocated

WASHINGTON: President Barack Obama said on Monday that Myanmar needs to take seriously the issue of how it treats the Rohingya people if it wants to be successful in its transition to a democracy.

Obama, speaking to a group of young Asians invited to the White House, said the United States is focused on making sure Rohingya who have been subject to human trafficking or are adrift at sea are relocated.

Myanmar’s navy refused on Sunday to let journalists approach a remote island where more than 700 migrants are said to be held following their rescue last week.

Reporters have been trying to access Thamee Hla Island at the mouth of the Irrawaddy since the authorities announced that 727 people, including 74 women and 45 children, had been found drifting in a boat off Myanmar’s coast and had been taken there.

They are part of a recent exodus of persecuted Myanmar Rohingya Muslims and Bangladeshi economic migrants who have fled the region en masse in a crisis that regional nations have struggled to deal with.