That's a very good question. I think we've spoken a little bit about the situation of the Rohingya in Bangladesh, both refugees and people who were born there. I think the Bangladeshi government has not been very welcoming. They don't want to encourage other refugees to come to Bangladesh. You may have heard at one point in the recent past that there was a proposal by some in the Bangladeshi government to put all of the Rohingya on an island off the coast. It was basically a desert island. This has not proceeded, but I think it's indicative of some of the challenges of having Bangladesh provide for the basic human rights of the Rohingya refugees who are in Bangladesh.
Apart from the humanitarian assistance that Bangladesh itself provides, after the wave of migrants left Rakhine State and both Myanmar and Bangladesh last summer, there was more effort between the two governments to work collaboratively, first to identify where the people rescued from the boats were actually from, whether they were from Myanmar or from Bangladesh. About 2,500 I think were repatriated to Myanmar.
It's a very challenging situation. There had been efforts on the part of Thailand, Malaysia, and Indonesia to agree on how to confront the particular problem last year of those who were on the boats in the Andaman Sea. Generally, I think, with some outside support, they did find a temporary solution—in other words, not sending them back to Myanmar or to Bangladesh immediately. They made it clear this was only a temporary solution, and they were looking for outside support from the international community to provide for their sustenance in the refugee camps, or, frankly, to resettle them elsewhere.
It's a mixed picture, I would say. I think the region as a whole recognizes that obviously trying to provide sustenance for refugees is the moral thing to do, the right thing to do, and an obligation under international humanitarian law, but it doesn't address the fundamental issue—that is, the discrimination that the Rohingya in particular face in Myanmar. Until that is addressed, obviously there will still be a push factor in terms of propelling Rohingya to take drastic measures to try to leave Myanmar.
The pull factor, of course, is also the economies in Malaysia and in some of the gulf states that are offering economic opportunities that don't exist in Myanmar. To some extent, the pull factor has also declined recently because of difficulties in the Malaysian economy. The economies of the gulf states are also not as prosperous as they once were.
As I say, I think it's a very mixed picture. So far this year we haven't seen so many refugees on the boats, partly due to a crackdown by Thailand on the migrant smuggling rings, and partly due to economic reasons. The pull factor isn't there anymore.
Thank you.