Qatar pledges £33m to Indonesian government for rescuing Muslim Rohingya migrants

Qatar's Emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani has offered some $50m (£33m) to Indonesia on Thursday (28 May) in support of the country's commitment towards sheltering Muslim Rohingya migrants from Myanmar.

In a meeting with the Indonesian Foreign Minister Retno Marsudi in Doha, Sheikh Tamim was told of the, "efforts by Indonesia and Malaysia in confronting the problem of refugees".

Sheikh Tamim in turn pledged a "donation worth $50m from Qatar to the Indonesian government to help it cover costs of hosting the Rohingya [migrants]," reported AFP News.

Indonesia and Malaysia agreed to accept the migrants arriving on crowded vessels from Bangladesh and Myanmar after world leaders pressed on the countries to offer help.

Some £17m ($26m) is needed to help the migrants, according to an estimate by the International Organisation for Migration as over 3,500 migrants have been rescued so far off the coats of Malaysia, Indonesia, Thailand and Bangladesh.

Rohingya is a minority group that has mostly been denied citizenship in Myanmar as the government considers them as illegal immigrants from Bangladesh.

Meanwhile, the Malaysian government is dealing with its own crisis that has further escalated the South East Asia migrant issue afte 139 mass graves and 28 human trafficking camps were found near the Thai border.

"We can't tell yet if they are the Rohingyas or Bangladeshis. We found a highly decomposed body on the ground, believed to have died two weeks ago," said Malaysia's Inspector-General of Police, Khalid Abu Bakar.