The Stateless Rohingya Blog

By   Engy Abdelkader Huffington Post December 26, 2013 Amid continued communal strife in Myanmar, Muslim women and children are increasingly finding themselves in vulnerable situations that have yet to be adequately recognized and addressed. This post glimpses the related issue of human trafficking. By way of background, Burma's record on human trafficking has prompted the United States to place it on a Tier 2 Watch List for the past two years. The Watch List is reserved for countries that fail to comply with minimum standards -- from preventing trafficking to investigating and prosecuting perpetrators of the crime to protecting victims -- as set forth in the Trafficking Victims Protection Act (TVPA). In Myanmar, security forces have subjected both Muslim men and women to forced labor. Women, however, have been reportedly forced into prostitution and other forms of slavery as well. In fact, according to a U.S. Department of State 2012  human rights report , Burmes

By   UN News December 26, 2013 The United Nations human rights office today urged the Government of Thailand to drop criminal defamation charges against two journalists who wrote about the alleged involvement of the Thai Navy with human trafficking.  “Criminal prosecution for defamation has a chilling effect on freedom of the press,”  said  Ravina Shamdasani, the spokesperson for the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights ( OHCHR ). “International standards are clear that imprisonment is never an appropriate penalty for defamation.”  Editor Alan Morison and reporter Chutima Sidasathian, who write for Phuketwan, a small English-language newspaper based on one of the Thai islands, cited a Reuters investigative report alleging the involvement of Thai naval security forces in smuggling Rohingya asylum-seekers fleeing Myanmar, where ethnic Rakhine Buddhists and Rohingya Muslims have been clashing since last year.  Mr. Morison and Ms. Sidasathian have also be