The Stateless Rohingya Blog

Rohingya minority children look out through a window of a bus after they were rescued by Thai authorities in Songkhla province, southern Thailand on Friday, Jan. 11, 2013. Nearly 700 boat people from Myanmar's beleaguered Rohingya minority were rescued from alleged human traffickers in two separate raids near Thailand’s southern border, Thai authorities said Friday. (AP Photo/Sumeth Panpetch) Thai authorities said Friday that about 700 people from Myanmar's beleaguered Rohingya minority who had entered Thailand illegally were found in two separate raids in the country's south and that they would be sent back to Myanmar. Police and government officials found 307 Rohingya asylum seekers during a search Friday at a warehouse in Sadao district in Songkhla province, police Maj. Col. Thanusin Duangkaewngam said. On Thursday, nearly 400 Rohingya were found in a raid in the same district.

Fears grow of US human trafficking downgrade Authorities have pledged to look after the 704 Rohingya migrants rounded up in two raids. The promise comes amid growing concerns that Thailand could face a downgrade on a US human trafficking watch list and risk sanctions by the US. Immigration officers and police yesterday found a second group of 307 Rohingya migrants including more than a dozen children in a warehouse on the border with Malaysia.

Nowhere to go: Burmese refugees in Delhi. Photo: S. Subramanium Source The Hindu:  January 11, 2013 Refugees from Myanmar refuse to return to the country citing violence and discrimination National League of Democracy chairperson Aung San Suu Kyi’s return to active politics in May last year after over two decades of incarceration had raised the hopes of the hundreds of Burmese refugees in India. They had also rejoiced during her six-day visit to the Capital last November. Yet the refugees, especially the Rohingya Muslims, are not willing to go back to their home country citing continuing violence against them and would instead prefer to obtain refugee status in India.