The Stateless Rohingya Blog

By  Assed Baig Anadolu Agency February 26, 2014  In Sittwe, the capital of the Rakhine state in Western Myanmar, reaching Rohingya camps and villages means navigating past police checkpoints manned by armed officers. The Rohingya are not allowed beyond this point. They are essentially trapped in their own areas because leaving requires special permits that can only be obtained through a long and expensive process. "We look at that checkpoint everyday, we can never go past there. We’re stuck here, how many people have the money to pay for the permits and bribes to be able to travel to other areas?" says Tahir, a driver who took the Anadolu Agency (AA) to the Rohingya camps. Boxed in by land, their only route of escape is the sea, where hundreds have perished trying to reach Malaysia, Bangladesh and sometimes more distant destinations. Regardless, they still risk the perilous journey, sometimes paying people traffickers only to end up in the hands of crim

By Aung Aung  The  Stateless 18 Rohingya from Minpya and Mrauk U towns of Arakan were persuaded to go to Yangon by a broker Maung Ni, (35 years of age). As Rohingyas are generally blocked from moving around, leaving their villages is impossible without the permission of the police. The broker had a good relationship with the police who had been blocking the Rohingya from leaving their villages. On 16 February 2014 , 18 Rohingya were transported by the broker and police by truck.  3 police accompanied them up to an area of dense forest where they saw another person. The police handed over those 18 Rohingya to the person standing there.  One of the Rohingya asked the person who was standing there why they could not continue by truck and why they needed to go on foot. He told them that there was a checkpoint on the highway and that they needed to pass that. After a few minutes walking, there saw a group of armed people. The person who was leading them rushed over to the group.