The Stateless Rohingya Blog

The woman fears that her children will die if they are sent back to the Nauru detention facility. (Photo: AAP) By Felicity Ogilvie ABC News November 9, 2013 An asylum seeker who was flown from Nauru to give birth in Australia says she is afraid that her baby and young children will die if the family is sent back to the island. The Rohingya woman from Myanmar says she gave birth via caesarean section in a hospital in Brisbane on Wednesday. The woman says that while she was pregnant she was detained in a tent for two weeks on Nauru. She says they were served pre-prepared meals that were sometimes only half-cooked, and she says it was hot inside the tents. "It was too hot. I cannot explain. Even day or night I could not fall asleep because of the heat," the woman said through a translator. The Rohingya woman, who says she has diabetes, says she was flown to Australia because she was pregnant. The woman says she was flown to Australia about 20 days...

Thousands of Rohingya refugees from Myanmar are expected in Thailand in the coming months. (Photo: AFP) By Australia News Network September 11, 2013 A boat with more than 200 Rohingya men onboard has been found at a beach in southern Thailand, after fleeing ongoing and escalating violence at home. The Phuketwan Tourism News reports that the men were found on a beach in Satun province, with thousands more expected to follow in coming months. The boat has arrived well ahead of what is considered as the safe sailing season, which is only due to start in late October. Three other boats are reported to have set off from Myanmar's troubled Rakhine state but their locations are unknown. Local police have been holding the Rohingya while waiting for the Thai army to step in. Desperate situation It is unclear what will happen to the men as Thailand's immigration centres and prisons are already full with other Rohingya who have been arrested in the last 8 months. Bu...

U Kyaw Hla Aung, 73, an activist/lawyer and former administrator for Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) in Sittwe. He is one of more than 100,000 Muslim Rohingya IDPs displaced following two bouts of sectarian violence in western Rakhine State in 2012  © Contributor/IRIN ABC Australia July 19, 2013 Human rights activists have called into doubt the Myanmar president's promise to free political prisoners following the detention of a prominent rights lawyer. President Thein Sein made the pledge during a visit to London this week. It is part of a series of democratic reforms initiated by his civilian government since taking power in 2011. However, Amnesty International says a prominent Rohingya lawyer, U Kyaw Hla Aung, was detained in Myanmar's Rakhine state on the same day as the presidents announcement. The rights group has accused Myanmar police of targeting the 74-year-old because of his work as a Rohingya human rights advocate. Shibab Ahamed, the ...

   Rohingya child's collect fire wood from the jungle and sell it (T eknaf Bangladesh) Stephanie March ABC Australia July 17, 2013 Bangladesh capital Dhaka has cracked down on migration from neighbouring Myanmar, closing its border, refusing to support asylum seekers and turning back boats. Surakatun and her family have been eating boiled leaves and rice for the past three days. It's a normal lunch at the unofficial refugee camp in Kutupalong - once the pots are empty, that's it. "My husband is old now so if I don't go out and beg we go hungry," she said. Like everyone in the camp, Surakatun is a Rohingya who has fled violence in Myanmar - she would rather endure this harsh existence than go back there. "If you see your daughter being dragged in front of you and being violated sexually would you bear that? Would you allow that to happen?" she said. In June and October last year, violence broke out between Buddhi...

The UNHCR says Rohingya refugees from Burma are among hundreds of migrants recently arrested by police in Thailand. (Credit: AFP) The UN's refugee agency says it has received permission from Thailand to visit hundreds of people living in a refugee camp in the country's south. Hundreds of illegal migrants have been rounded up and arrested this past week in remote farmland and forest along the Thai-Malaysia border.