Here is a report that is pretty shocking, if it’s true (I don’t know this website). Regular readers know that I continually question why rich Muslim countries with much ballyhooed Muslim charity virtually never resettle Muslim refugees, so I was shocked to read this. Apparently at one point Saudi Arabia did take some refugees, but now those same refugees are languishing in Saudi prisons. So where is the UN High Commissioner for Refugees, where is the outrage?
They have been described as some of the world’s most persecuted refugees, and among the most forgotten, too. During my imprisonment in Jeddah I saw and met hundreds of inmates from Burma.
Thousands of Burmese Muslims from Arakan—often called Rohingyas—were offered a safe haven in Saudi Arabia by the late King Faisal, but with the change in monarch the rules changed too. What was to have been a permanent abode of peace for these uprooted people has now turned into a chamber of horrors.
There are about 3,000 families of Burmese Muslims in Mecca and Jeddah prisons awaiting deportation. Women and children are held in separate prisons nearby. The only contact the men have with their wives and children is through mobile phones.
For everything you ever wanted to know about Rohingya—an ethnic group we don’t resettle (yet!)—see our Rohingya Reports category.