Category: Rohingya Reports

Rohingya News Roundup

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

There is so much Rohingya news over the last two days, I can’t begin to report it all.  So, I’ve decided to give you links to follow-up on yourselves today.

If you are new to RRW and wondering how this illegal alien controversy in Thailand affects you, it does.  There will soon be a plea to take these Burmese Rohingya Muslims to your town or city.  What the Thai government has done is to give refugee advocates the publicity they needed to push a campaign that has been in the works for a long time.

* New batch of Rohingya came ashore in Thailand yesterday.  The government claims they are economic migrants and the Rohingya are claiming they are seeking asylum.  Economic migrants can be deported.  The UN says those seeking asylum must be protected.    Here for the story.

* This editorial in the Korea Herald started out with the usual plea for human rights for the Rohingya arriving in Thailand and Indonesia, but took an interesting angle near the end.  I’m cheering!  Other Muslim countries, such as Saudi Arabia, should be helping the Rohingya.

The Saudi government (regardless of its poor attitude toward the anti-Israel, anti-US Palestinians) has pledged US$1 billion to rebuild Gaza. What about spending some of its God-given wealth on the Rohingyas and other poor, oppressed Muslim communities outside of Palestine?

* Refugees International, the lobbying arm of the refugee industry in the US, says Thailand cannot send them back to Burma (Myanmar) because they will be abused. RI didn’t say anything about Saudi Arabia helping—they never do.  From a Burmese Muslim website:

The Washington-based group Refugees International has warned that any Rohingya repatriated to Myanmar “is subject to arrest and abuse.”

“Until the Rohingya are recognised by Burma as citizens, neighbouring countries like Thailand must protect and assist this vulnerable population,” it said in a statement released earlier this month.

For a history of the building Rohingya resettlement campaign see our entire category on the subject here.

Thailand’s “dump-at-sea” policy on illegal aliens drawing reporters like sharks

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

It has been fascinating over recent weeks to watch a story grow into an international crisis.   That is what has happened with the Rohingya boat men story.  For new readers, reports surfaced at the end of December that hundreds of Rohingya Muslim men were being detained by the Thai military as they arrived on beaches in Thailand seeking by some accounts a better life, and by other accounts have a darker mission—joining the Muslim insurgency in the South of Thailand.

The explosion in the story came as a result of the apparently now true allegation that the Thai military is hauling them back to the sea in boats without paddles resulting in hundreds perishing at sea.

To get you up to speed, check out this Christian Science Monitor article a couple of days ago (thanks to all who sent it).  A little background from the CSM:

Thailand has long been a magnet for millions of economic migrants as well as refugees escaping persecution in Burma, Laos, Cambodia, and Vietnam. Human traffickers often play a role in transporting both groups, exposing those on the run to egregious abuses. Thailand has a mixed record on hosting refugees.

Most Rohingya, who are denied legal rights in Burma, begin their journey in Bangladesh, where more than 200,000 live in unofficial camps. A further 28,000 are registered with the UNHCR. From there, men pay smugglers for passage across the Indian Ocean to Thailand, usually as a transit stop to reach Malaysia, a Muslim country with a sizable Rohingya population. Some Bangladeshis also travel there.

Now, CNN has sent a team of reporters to the region, so get ready for stories far and wide.   CNN has obtained photos of the ‘dump-at-sea’ that they must have received from someone inside the Thai military.  I’m not defending the Thai military when I say this, but if the photos are legit,  it was really stupid of them to photograph the hauling out to sea event.

This (below) is from CNN and it has a bit of new information for those of us following the story on a regular basis.  CNN says the Thai military is protecting the local Thai villagers (you know, kind of like what our military should be doing on the Mexican border).

The Rohingya, a persecuted minority in Myanmar, have been fleeing their country in rickety boats for years, in search of a better life.

In Thailand, many instead have found deprivation and the possibility of desertion far off shore, according to the CNN investigation.

The source who provided CNN with photos of refugees in a boat being towed out to sea stressed that the Thai army had given the refugees food and water, but he also confirmed that the boats had been pulled for more than two days into international waters before they were set adrift.

His account directly contradicts briefings by senior Thai army sources who denied any such operation was undertaken.

A source in the Thai military, after extensive questioning, did confirm to CNN that the Thai army was operating a dump-at-sea policy. But the source defended it, insisting that each boatload of refugees was always given sufficient supplies of food and water.

That source claimed local villagers had become afraid of the hundreds of Rohingya arriving each month, and that they were accusing the refugees of stealing their property and threatening them.

Beware, as the world economy continues to tank, there will be more of this—economic migrants flowing across borders—and more demand that the US and western countries take them in.

That is what this media drumbeat is working up to.

For more on the Rohingya, see our extensive archive here.

Rohingya boat MEN issue turning into test of Thailand’s new government

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

I am not wading into Thailand’s political mess, it is too complicated.  However, I would be remiss in keeping our Rohingya Reports category up to date without mentioning that the Rohingya boat MEN (I refuse to say boat people implying women and children were included) controversy is morfing into a major test of the prime minister (or so his critics contend).  

Here is an editorial from the Bangkok Post today:

The proposal from the Foreign Ministry for a meeting of regional nations to find a permanent solution to the dilemma presented by Rohingya boat people is definitely a step in the right direction, but it will do little to dim the perception that Thailand has a lot to hide in its handling of the situation thus far. This is critical as new Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva strives to restore the credibility of the rule of law in Thailand following the closure of Bangkok’s two airports late last year by People’s Alliance for Democracy protesters.

Mr Abhisit is in the unenviable position of trying to defend the policy of turning away Rohingya boat people while at the same time assuring that they have been handled according to international human rights standards. The problem with this is that evidence keeps mounting that this has not always been the case, and, as well, that perhaps no one outside the nation’s security forces, not even the prime minister, has a clear picture of what exactly is going on.

Read on.     Think about it:   many of the problems facing the stability of a large number of countries of the world is illegal immigration.

This editorial ends with cheering Obama’s first week and tells the people of Thailand what wonderful things he has accomplished so far.   Here are the last lines:

Mr Obama is expected to lift restrictions on federal funding for stem cell research as well. In all these areas, a change of direction was badly needed. The world waits for Mr Obama’s next moves.

By tacking this on to the end of the Rohingya editorial it sounded like they would soon be bringing Obama in on the Rohingya situation.  Come to think of it, maybe that isn’t so far-fetched.  Watch for the push from the refugee resettlement lobbyists and federal refugee contractors to bring these Rohingya Muslim boat men here!

Watch too, for the battle of terminology.  Governments in the region are calling these Rohingya and Bangladeshi boat men “economic migrants” which is a completely different thing than a “refugee” escaping persecution.   The first is just a fancy term for illegal alien, the latter can ask the UN for refugee status and a ticket to the first world.

Uh! oh! UNHCR wanted to see the 126 Rohingya still in Thai custody….

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

Update Jan. 24th:   Jakarta Globe:  Indonesia determined that the 193 Rohingya they rescued will be returned to where they came from since they are economic migrants and not asylum seekers.

 

….but they are gone, escorted out to sea according to this article in the Earth Times:

Bangkok – A group of 126 Rohingya boat people whom the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) wanted to access to determine whether they needed protection has already been pushed back to sea by Thai authorities, officials said. “These people have been escorted out of Thailand,” said Thai Foreign Ministry deputy spokesman Thani Thonpakdi.

[…..]

…. the Internal Security Operations Command (ISOC) has now made it clear that the 126 boat people had been pushed out to sea already, said Thani.

The human rights groups must be howling about now.

The Thai government maintains the Rohingya are not refugees that would fall under the UN High Commissioner for Refugees purview anyway.

“From information we have collected, it appears that they are economic migrants,” Faizasyah said.

Faizasyah said the foreign ministry could not involve the UN refugee agency UNHCR because the Myanmar refugees were not believed to be political asylum-seekers.

In light of the public relations nightmare Thailand has gotten into it was pretty stupid of them to take this group of 126 out to sea, not to mention inhumane.

If you are new to this story, go here, to our special category on Rohingya and catch up!

Bangladesh to take some Rohingya back

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

Good for you Bangladesh!   In the on-going saga of the Rohingya Muslim boat men, there is a bright spot.   The Indian Navy had rescued some of the Rohingya men attempting to get to Malaysia and has detained them.   Those identified as citizens of Bangladesh will be returned to that country.  Now, isn’t that a sensible solution.

From the BBC:

Bangladesh has accepted that at least 57 illegal migrants who made unsuccessful boat journeys to Thailand and Malaysia are its citizens.

More than 300 people, mostly Rohingya Muslim refugees originally from Burma but now living in Bangladesh, are in a jail in India’s Andamans islands.

Thailand is probing reports that troops sent the Rohingyas back to sea in boats without engines and little food.

[….]

Mr Hussain (Bangladesh’s foreign secretary) said Indian and Bangladeshi officials were now working out the most efficient way to repatriate the migrants.

Those rescued are Rohingya Muslims, originally from Burma’s Arakan province but many now settled as refugees in southern Bangladesh. Many have acquired Bangladesh citizenship.

Here is a first hand account in The National* from one of the survivors now in Indian custody.  He just wants to go back to Bangladesh to his parents.

Akhtar’s friend Farid was among the dead. “I had no idea that the journey to Malaysia could be so dangerous. I hope the Indian government will send me to Bangladesh soon. I shall work in Bangladesh now and never venture to go to Malaysia again,” Akhtar said.

“More than three-quarters of us died. Allah has kept me alive. It’s a miracle to me. I have to live the rest of my life as a good Muslim. Allah will definitely help me in Bangladesh.”

Hopefully Akhtar will spread that message to other young men.

Note to Thailand and all countries dealing with illegal aliens:  Feed them, treat them well, and return them to wherever they came from.   When you do foolish things like our Embassy in Malta has done—bring African illegal aliens to the US as refugees—they will just keep coming.

*The National is a publication from the United Arab Emirates–note they have not offered to take any fellow Muslims to the UAE.