The Stateless Rohingya Blog

Maungdaw, Arakan State: More than 150 acres of arable lands were confiscated by the government authority and have provided to the Natala villagers in Maungdaw south recently, said a local farmer on condition of anonymity. “They confiscated lands had already been grown winter paddy (paddy after paddy) by the farmers when it was seized by the authority. The all seized lands are belonging to Rohingya villagers of Sarcombo and Gudusora villages under the Maungdaw south.”

 Rohingya boat arrivals from Myanmar/Burma as well as Bangladesh show conditions of  desperation among the mostly Muslim displaced in the region. Image: NlK Source Women News Network: (WNN/IRIN) Khao Lak , THAILAND: The future of more than 1,500 recent Rohingya boat arrivals in Thailand is unclear, despite a government reprieve allowing them to stay for another six months. The mainly Muslim Rohingya have long faced persecution in Myanmar, where they are de jure stateless under Burmese law; in Bangladesh most Rohingya refugees are unwelcome and face discrimination.

Source The Nation  January 30, 2013  The best place on earth to discuss the Rohingya issue is Myanmar - and it's timely to raise the issue with the authorities in Nay Pyi Taw now as they are in the process of seeking political reform for national reconciliation. And reform cannot take effect unless the Rohingya issue is addressed.

An estimated 200 Rohingya refugees landed on the uninhabited island of Koh Racha Noi, 25 kilometers south of Phuket, this morning. Photo: Royal Thai Navy Phuket Gazette  January 29, 2013 PHUKET: An estimated 200 Rohingya refugees landed on Koh Racha Noi this morning, as reports simultaneously flooded in of another convoy, carrying about 180 men, women and children, coming ashore at Koh Phra Thong on the Phang Nga coast.

The Rohingyas have no state to call their own. PHOTO: MASHIUR RAHAMAN BANGLADESH / TEKNAF: Six months ago, 89-year-old Abdul Matin fled the sectarian riots in the state of Rakhine, in Myanmar, to a refugee camp in Bangladesh. His house was burnt down during the unrest, along with all his belongings.  With nothing but cruel memories of a bleeding homeland, he and his family salvaged what they could and crossed over the River Naf.“We had no choice but to sell the jewllery my wife was wearing at the time we escaped to pay to cross the river,” Matin told The Express Tribune.

Bangkok Post: Published: 29 Jan 2013 The Asean Inter-Parliamentary Myanmar Caucus (AIPMC) says the Myanmar government's policy of segregation in Rakhine state is the main factor in the mass migration of the Rohingya people - and admits it is also at fault for its own failure to act in the past. Kraisak Choonhavan, vice president of AIPMC and chair of the Thailand Caucus, said many Rohingya people fleeing Myanmar in hope of better life are likely to instead face detention or discrimination in other countries.