More distressing news from the British Isles this morning (see first distressing news here). Ireland is taking 78 Rohingya Muslim refugees. From the Irish Times:
SEVENTY EIGHT Burmese refugees are due to arrive in Ireland next month after being selected for resettlement here under a United Nations scheme.
The group of 16 families, who belong to Burma’s Rohingya minority, left their country in 1992 and have been living in camps on the Bangladesh/Burmese border since then. They will spend six weeks at an orientation centre in Ballyhaunis, Co Mayo to prepare them for permanent resettlement in other towns.
The plight of Burma’s estimated 800,000 Rohingya, a Muslim minority based in the northwest of the country, attracted international attention in recent weeks following reports that hundreds who fled to Thailand were mistreated by the Thai military.
I wrote about the camps at Cox’s Bazaar in my first post on Rohingya here. Note these camps are believed to be home to Islamic radicals.
The 78 refugees – 28 adults and 50 children – who are due to travel to Ireland are currently living in camps in the Cox’s Bazar region of Bangladesh and were identified by the UNHCR as a priority group for resettlement.
So far the US is not officially resettling Rohingya (Burmese Muslims are here, it’s not clear if they are Rohingya), but Canada has. Note to the Irish authorities, don’t resettle the Rohingya anywhere near the Burmese Karen Christians, they don’t get along. Poor Ireland they thought their Catholic/Protestant “troubles” were bad. Just wait!
The Burmese Karen who came to Ireland last year were eventually resettled in Castlebar and Ballina, while 180 Iranian Kurds who arrived the previous year settled in Sligo, Carrick-on-Shannon and Mullingar.
The department said that discussions were continuing with various communities in relation to long-term resettlement arrangements for those who arrive in the coming months.
For everything you need to know about Rohingya, see our entire category on the topic here.