The Stateless Rohingya Blog

UNHCR : Briefing Notes February 22, 2013 This is a summary of what was said by UNHCR spokesperson Andrej Mahecic – to whom quoted text may be attributed – at the press briefing, on 22 February 2013, at the Palais des Nations in Geneva. UNHCR is concerned about a rising numbers of deaths in the Indian Ocean involving people fleeing their countries for safety and better lives elsewhere. This includes many Rohingya from Myanmar. Already in 2013, several thousand people are believed to have boarded smuggler's boats in the Bay of Bengal, among them Rohingya from Rakhine state or from Bangladesh's refugee camps and makeshift sites.  Most are men, but there are also increasing reports of women and children on these often-rickety boats making the journey southwards. We estimate that of the 13,000 people who left on smugglers' boats in 2012, close to 500 died at sea when their boats broke down or capsized. While UNHCR is still gathering data from 2012 on deaths

Rescued Rohingya Muslims sit at a Sri Lankan immigration detention center in Colombo on Wednesday.(Eranga Jayawardena / Associated Press / February 20, 2013) Los Angeles Times  February 22, 201  By Emily Alpert  By the time their rickety boat was rescued last week off the eastern coast of  Sri Lanka , nearly a hundred of the weakened passengers had lost their lives – roughly three times as many as survived. The starving people had endured nearly two months at sea, trying to flee the western state of  Myanmar  where hundreds were slain last year, the  United Nations  refugee agency said Friday. The Rohingya Muslims say they undertook the arduous journey out of fear for their lives. The outpouring of Rohingya from western Myanmar and  Bangladesh  refugee camps has made the Indian Ocean “one of the deadliest stretches of water in the world,” the U.N. refugee agency said Friday. It estimated that last year, nearly 500 out of 13,000 people fleeing by boat in the Bay

Muslim refugees gather at Thechaung camp refugee camp upon arrival in Sittwe, Rakhine State, western Myanmar, Sunday, Oct. 28, 2012. (AP / Khin Maung Win) 9News World February 22, 2013 Australia will boost aid by $2.5 million to Myanmar's (Burma's) displaced ethnic communities, but has ruled out an "open door" policy to ethnic Muslim Rohingya seeking asylum in Australia after fleeing sectarian violence. Foreign Minister Bob Carr, after meeting Thai counterpart Surapong Tovichakchaikul, said Australia ruled out allowing the Rohingya to be part of its resettlement policy after advice by the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR). "We don't want to give the impression that for Rohingya, (those) desperate people (who) come to Thailand, they have a route to Australia because the settlement, the settlement of this displacement lies in changing policies to (give) effect to changed policies within Rakhine province," Senator

Bangla Times:   February 21, 2013   M.S. Anwar The world has been witnessing the well-planned Genocide of Rohingyas and Kamans in Arakan, Burma for more than eight months now. Consequently, Rohingyas and Kamans are now without foods, any access to medical treatments and their other ways to livelihoods are blocked. They are being arbitrary arrested, tortured and killed. Their properties are being looted and women being raped. Religious buildings are locked down and so and so atrocities have been being carried out against them under the so-called international radar. Not surprisingly though, the heinous crimes Rohingyas and Kamans are successfully being covered up. Their outcries are falling into deaf ears. Less attention and (less) importance are given to their dying plights. No effective steps to prevent the continuing Genocide of them have been taken yet. Nor does it seem it will be taken in the future. To avoid such extremely vulnerable conditions, Rohingyas and Kamans (M