The Stateless Rohingya Blog

Sailors help rescued survivors at Oluvil fisheries harbour in eastern Sri Lanka Photo  03 February 2013 Source Channel News Asia: 03 February 2013  COLOMBO: Sri Lanka's navy on Saturday rescued 38 Myanmar nationals who were drifting off the island's east coast, the second batch of boatpeople to be saved in as many weeks, officials said. Sri Lankan naval craft responding to a distress call plucked the 38 people from a rickety boat drifting about 250 miles (400 kilometres) off the east coast, a navy official said. Four of the rescued passengers required treatment for dehydration and they were being brought to the southern port of Galle, he said. "Four people required medical attention and are out of danger," the navy official, who asked not to be named, said. "They will reach shore by tomorrow (Sunday)." It is the second time in less than two weeks the navy has gone to help a crippled foreign boat. On February 3, the navy re

BANGKOK, Feb 16 (Bernama) -- All member countries of the Asean have been urged to jointly seek solutions to the growing problem of Rohingya migrants in Myanmar, Thai News Agency (TNA) reported. Speaking in Bangkok on Friday at a seminar organised by Chulalongkorn University, a key panelist, Somchai Homla-or from the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC), acknowledged that the 10-nation bloc has never done enough to address the growing problems of Rohingya migration, but rather leaving destination countries, like Thailand, Malaysia and Indonesia, to address the problem. Other panelists said decades of discrimination have left the Rohingya ethnics stateless and inaccessible to employment, education, medical care and land rights. Destination countries were, however, suggested to enforce their existing women and child laws to ensure basic humanitarian support to these boat people. According to Somchai and other key panelists, giving up Asean's principle of non-

The United States should play a key role in negotiating with Myanmar to take back thousands of Rohingya migrants who are being sheltered in several provinces of Thailand, a seminar was told yesterday. Col Teeranan Nandhakwang, deputy director of the Strategic and Security Affairs Division at Royal Thai Armed Forces, said Thailand should ask the US to help negotiate with the Myanmar government to move Rohingya migrants back to the country. Col Teeranan was speaking at the seminar titled "Rohingya: Testing for Asean" held by the Institute of Asean Studies of Chulalongkorn University. He said Thailand cannot pressure Myanmar to accept the Rohingya migrants as a lot of Thai businesses are currently investing there. But he believed the country can ask for help from the US, which wants to play a role in this region, he said. "Myanmar is opening up its country and wants to counterbalance the power with China while the US wants to return to Myanmar,"