The Stateless Rohingya Blog

Displaced Rohingya in Rakhine State. PHOTO: Evangelos Petratos/EU Humanitarian Aid and Civil Protection/Flickr By Kay Zin Oo Mizzima News July 23, 2013 Myanmar’s Minister of Immigration and Population Khin Yi told reporters on July 21 that his office has requested assistance from Islamic leaders and international organizations in collating the names and numbers of Muslim refugees from the communal violence that plagued Rakhine State last year. Minister Khin Yi said, “We asked for help from Islamic leaders and international organizations to persuade the Bengali [Rohingya] people to accept the work being conducted. Many refuse to collaborate with the authorities, but accept the non-government bodies and international organizations.” He said that they must finish this head count in Rakhine State before a nationwide census which is scheduled to be conducted from March 30 to April 10, 2014. “Conducting a census has nothing to do with the military or politics,” he

Zawbader Hattu, 31 (left), sitting at a government-run shelter for women and children in Phang Nga in southern Thailand, on June 18, 2013. REUTERS/Damir Sagolj   Thomson Reuters Foundation July 23, 2013 PHANG NGA, Thailand - Record numbers of stateless Rohingya Muslims are fleeing Myanmar following  two bouts of sectarian violence last year  that left scores dead and some 140,000 displaced, most of them Muslims. Estimates on the number of people leaving on boats from the Bay of Bengal between June 2012 and May 2013 range from 27,000 to nearly 35,000 - the biggest exodus in years. Some passengers were from Bangladesh but most were  Rohingya , who have lived in Myanmar for generations but are denied citizenship.  Zawbader Hattu, 31, was one of them. Detained in a government-run shelter in southern Thailand with about 60 other women and children since February, she told Thomson Reuters Foundation why she left Myanmar.  “The main reason we left Myanmar is becau

KPN News: July 22, 2013 Maungdaw, Arakan State: The authority from Arakan State used new tactic after dissolving the Burma border security force (Nasaka), but policemen and Para police (Hluntin) are arbitrary arresting and harassing the Rohingya people in Maungdaw south, said a local elder on condition of anonymity. Four Rohingya were arrested from Donkhali village by police and Hluntin personnel from Bodawpara police outpost, over the allegation that they were using Bangladeshi mobile phone on July 18, according to villagers. However, the four Rohingya – Amir Hussain (17), son of Eliyas, Sadek (20), son of Kobir, and another two – released after taking Kyat 400,000. There was no file for arrested and detained in the police out post. The police and Hluntin used this method for extorting money from Rohingya community in northern Arakan, said an aide of police outpost. “We believe that the harassment will be decreased after central government dissolved Burma border secur