The Stateless Rohingya Blog

voanews Photo: AP A refugee woman sits with her mother (l) and her children at an unregistered refugees camp, outside the official camp at Kutupalong. Hundreds of thousands of members of the Rohingya ethnic group fled to Bangladesh to escape persecution in neighboring Myanmar only find themselves trapped in a hellish international limbo. As Muslims, they were unwanted in Buddhist Myanmar. As foreigners, they are unwanted in Muslim Bangladesh, (File). Human rights groups say hundreds of ethnic Muslim Rohingya refugees from Burma have fled their temporary homes in Bangladesh, hoping to sail to nearby countries to escape discrimination and rights abuses. The flight of the refugees includes many women and comes as Burma reaches an agreement with Bangladesh to take back thousands of Rohingya refugees now living in camps. Human rights groups say more than two dozen vessels carrying Muslim Rohingya refugees have set sail into the Bay of Bengal since September amid few positive signs of impro

By THE IRRAWADDY   Aung Thein Lin, former Rangoon mayor and USDP official, center, hints that Suu Kyi's party is under foreign influence. (Photo: Irrawaddy) An official from Burma's military-backed Union Solidarity and Development Party (USDP), which dominates the country's national Parliament, implied that the Burmese opposition party led by pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi is under the influence of foreign countries. Burma is at risk of being influenced by external powers because of “a certain political party” that is operating under the influence of foreign nations, said Aung Thein Lin, who is the former mayor of Rangoon and a leading MP representing the USDP. Although he did not mention either Suu Kyi or her National League for Democracy (NLD) by name, Aung Thein Lin’s remark was widely viewed as referring to the NLD because it was made at a meeting in Rangoon on Dec. 10 between USDP officials and representatives from a coalition of ten opposition parties that

By news.msn. Human rights groups say up to 25 boats of Burmese Muslim Rohingya refugees have set off from Bangladesh since September for Malaysia or Indonesia and may head on to Australia. Chris Lewa, Thailand-based co-ordinator for the Arakan Project, a human rights group supporting the Rohingya, says groups of up to 15 refugees may later seek to make the journey onwards to Australia. "In terms of (numbers of) boats I would say Australia for some is a secondary movement. But the boat leaving from Bangladesh in Arakan border are mostly heading to Malaysia," Ms Lewa said. "But we have observed a small number of Rohingya and maybe increase in the future of Rohingya who have been in Malaysia for a while and they are now moving towards Australia," she told AAP. Up to 300 Rohingya have made their way to Australia over the past three years, fleeing discrimination and destitution. The Rohingya, a Muslim minority, mostly live in Rakhine State in western Burma, but face dis