Rohingya from
Thailand - Burmese Rohingya Association in Thailand (BRAT) – had organized a
press conference on The Rohingya "unwanted and alone in Thailand…” at
Student Christian Centre (SCC), Bangkok on August 24, at about 9:30 to 13:00
hour, according to U Maung Kyaw Nu, President, BRAT.
Participants in the
event
The key speakers who
delivered their speeches in event were:- Dr. Niran Pitakwatchara,
National Human Right Commissioner of Thailand; Mr.Surapong; Kongchantuk, ;Human
Rights Committee, Lawyers Council of Thailand; Mr.Sunai Phasuk; Advisor of
Human Rights Watch; Ms.Saowanee Khomepatr Director, Bureau of Anti-Trafficking
in Woman and Children, Ministry of Social Development and Human Security;
Mr.Sarawoot Sriwannayos, Former President of Young Thai Muslim Organization;
the Media award winner John Spark ; Ms.Chtima ,Editor of Phuketwan; U Maung
Kyaw Nu,President of Burmese Rohinya Association in Thailand where
M.s.Thananuch Sanguansak, Editor of Feature News, Nation Channel is Moderated
the event.
Rohingyas who are
living in the Thailand, representative of Bangkok Post and some representatives
from National and International Media and TV Channels, some NGOs
representatives and Diplomats also attended in the event.
“I was concerned that
the Rohingya refugees were being deprived of basic rights while under temporary
care in Thailand,” said Dr Niran Pitakwatchara, the National Human Rights
Commission (NHRC) at the Rohingya conference in Bangkok.
Thousands of Rohingya
Muslims fled for persecution from Burma to Thailand, Malaysia and Indonesia
over the past year by sea route, but many have ended up in Thailand and Thai
authority kept them in poor temporary shelters, now it is time for the
government to decide on temporary shelters for displaced Rohingya people until
practical longer-term solutions are reached, said Dr. Niran.
They faced difficult
to stay in poor temporary shelter, exploitation by trafficking gangs, and
extortion from smuggling gangs during their stay in Thailand, Dr Niran.
"Though Thailand
is not a signatory [to the 1951 UN Refugee Convention], relevant ministries
could actually expedite their authority in providing decent and appropriate
shelters for these people, based on human rights principles in the Thai
Constitution," said Dr Niran.
"Being a refugee
is not criminal. The Rohingya are not illegal immigrants," he said,
arguing against the use of detention centers.
"There is
adequate religious and community support for the Rohingya while they wait for
appropriate durable solutions."
“Any local
communities identified as sites for temporary shelters should be closely
consulted before the Rohingya are relocated, he said. According to the
Immigration Act , gave authorities the discretion to move out the Rohingya to a
proper place outside of immigration detention centers.”
Panel speckers at the
Rohingya conference in Bangkok
The more urgent need
for a better solution and whatever decisions are made, policymakers should
implement them quickly since separated families have become disheartened and
some were being lured by gangsters to meet up with their families in Malaysia
and Indonesia, said at conference Saowanee Khomepatr, director of the
Anti-Trafficking in Women and Children division of the Ministry of Social
Development and Human Security.
The Rohingya exodus
in the past year included more women and children for persecution and
harassment inside their country which become worse for them to live in their
home land and communication problems and uncertainty in their future have made
them unwilling to cooperate with fact-finding and informal registration,
proposed to Thai government to work with the UN refugee agency to check numbers
and carry out formal registration while the migrants are under the temporary
protection of Thailand, remained lax in uncovering and prosecuting trafficking
gangs where the gangs have operated with the cooperation or active
participation by Thai police and military figures, activists have claimed,
according to Sunai Phasuk of Human Rights Watch.
“The Yingluck
Shinawatra government had promised not to deport the Rohingya against their
will, while the previous Democrat administration allowed them to be quietly
pushed back at the border,” said Sunai.“That is one positive policy development
in this year.”
Authorities should
communicate and coordinate with Thai society to better accommodate the temporary
stay of the Rohingya. The Thai government has prepared a set of policies on
illegal immigrants which include the Rohingya but the National Security Council
has dragged this out without launching specific measures, said Surapong
Kongchuntuk, a member of the Human Rights Committee of the Lawyers Council of
Thailand.
Mr. Surapong
suggested that to start with all coastal and inland officials should not to
deport or push Rohingya boat people back to sea. Trafficking syndicates,
especially the uniformed and civilian officials in their ranks, should be also
punished to give a stern warning to traffickers.
The Rohingya are an
ethnic minority- facing discrimination and persecution in their daily lives-
fleeing from their homeland (genocide north-west Arakan State, Burma) by boat
to neighboring countries – Bangladesh, India, Thailand, Malaysia and Indonesia.
In Thailand, more than 2000 Rohingya are now being held in atrocious conditions
in Thai detention centers while many more are being moved through remote Thai
locations by criminal gangs. Pressure is building on Thailand’s government to
provide better accommodation and long-term certainty to Rohingya detainees.
Activists are calling on Thai government officials to lobby their counterparts
in Myanmar for better treatment and long-term solutions – like international
protection and to return citizenship for the Rohingya in Burma, said Maung Kyaw
Nu, president of the Burmese Rohingya Association in Thailand in the
conference.
Maung Kyaw Nu,
President , BRAT delivering his speech in the conference
Rohingya influx into
neighboring countries have alarmingly become a regional problem immediately and
also international problem in other aspect. It certainly demands regional and
international community attention to find both present and future solution so
that these persecuted people have a life in line with universal declaration of
human rights of right to life, security and dignity, Mr. Kyaw Nu said.
Fleeing persecuted
Rohingya through risky journey of high sea, some of them have been shored up in
Thai coast or ended up in Thai sea. Those reached ashore have been under
different detention camp indefinitely without trail and access to
international, regional and domestic human right body and/or non-government body
except handful. The prison situation is so horrifying that by no mean it meets
minimum standard of detainee living condition. Rohingya face discrimination and
dehumanization in crowded detention centers and at the hands of traffickers.
The sad truth is that Thai authority has treated other immigrants from Burma
generously and humanly, however they are iron-fist while treating Rohingya
people. There are 1200 kilometers along Thai-Burma border, if a person from
each kilometer Burmese illegal immigrant entered to Thailand everyday 1200
Burmese illegally entered but no one know how many left, how remain inside the
Thailand, but Thai authorities are furious on only towards a small
Rohingya, that remains a question to general people why?, said Kyaw Nu.
Rohingyas are not
economic migrants but compelled by oppressive regime to flee their home and
hearth for the fear of persecution which categorically considered under UN
Convention of Refugee, so, they should be dealt accordingly with humanity.
Present treatment of Rohingya by Thailand is not a solution for now and then.
It is clear violation of universal human rights while Rohingya are direly in
need of protection and provision then a viable solution, Kyaw Nu told the
participant in the conference.
Rohingya is an
indigenous people of Arakan whose domicile can be traced even before the birth
of the name Arakan then Burma. Rohingya has hundreds and thousands years of
history.
Rohingya is an
indigenous people of Arakan whose domicile can be traced even before the birth
of the name Arakan then Burma. Rohingya has hundreds and thousands years of
history. It is neither mere-assertion of ancient nor invention of present. It
is indeed well documented historical fact. Its geography and demography should
have evidenced the claim that Rohingyas are natural and native sons of present
Arakan. Ancient people of Arakan are Aryan descendants whose feature and tongue
is same as Rohingya, different with Mongoloid origin known as Rakhine.
Rohingya has been
component in every layer of governance both pre- and post-independence of Burma
as one of the ethnic races and enjoyed every birth rights till military coup
led by late dictator General Ne Win in 1962.
Then Ne Win led BSSP
institutionally introduced 1982 Citizenship Act (known as black law ) targeting
Rohingya minority to thoroughly strip off their citizenship and its affiliated
rights and to gradually evacuate entire people from their own soil which has
been successful through various tyrannical measures as institutionalized
discrimination, official restriction, systematic limitation, administrative
marginalization and premeditated isolation.
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