The Stateless Rohingya Blog

Rohingya slaves now on sale in Thailand: US$2,300 per head Grant Bayldon Dominion Post  July 31, 2013  As Australia closes the door on desperate boat arrivals, Amnesty International New Zealand head Grant Bayldon thinks it's time for New Zealand to increase the number of refugees it takes. I'm not told the name of the well-dressed, 30-something-year-old man I'm introduced to in Bangkok, and I know not to ask. He shows me the outside of his red Myanmar passport. It wouldn't seem worth much to me - there's not many countries a Myanmar passport will get you into - but he holds it like gold dust. It's hard to place a value on belonging to a country - any country - until you meet people who don't. The fact that this man even has a passport is surprising, for he is Rohingya, an ethnic minority group in Myanmar that has been described by the United Nations as one of the most persecuted in the world. Over the centuries, Myanmar - also ...

Grant Bayldon The New Zealand Herald July 24, 2013 Getting tough is not the answer: Australia and NZ must work with Asian nations to help, writes Grant Bayldon.   Asylum seekers can end up in desperate conditions in receiving countries. (Photo/AP) The Asia Pacific region is probably the worst part of the world to be a refugee in. Not only does it have more refugees, it has less protection for them than anywhere else in the world. This month while in Thailand, I visited Rohingya women and children who had fled from appalling atrocities in Burma. I should be used to hearing such stories by now, working for Amnesty International, but the stories are always so far removed from my life in New Zealand that I don't think I ever will be. These women had been so desperate to escape that they had fled to Thailand, a terrifying three-week journey in a small open fishing boat packed with 100 people. Some were pregnant - one delivered her baby on the boat. All had...