The Stateless Rohingya Blog

Rohingya in Thailand suffer abuse from human traffickers By  Phuketwan July 11, 2014 PHUKET : Thailand and Burma have agreed to ''facilitate the safe return'' of 130,000 displaced persons to their homeland, General Prayuth Chan-ocha said tonight.  He also said the issue of the Rohingya boatpeople had been discussed with Myanmar's Commander in Chief of Defence Forces, General Min Aung Hlaing, in Bangkok this week.  ''The gist of the meeting is that Thailand and Myanmar (Burma) will cooperate in helping displaced persons from fighting in Myanmar,'' the general said in his weekly national telecast. He took charge of Thailand in a coup on May 22. Details are likely to emerge in the next day or two about precisely what the two countries plan for the large number of refugees from Burma now living in Thailand. ''These people have been staying in temporary shelters with certain restrictions for a long time,'...

Minister in the Prime Minister's Department Datuk Seri Shahidan Kassim - File pic  By Rahmah Ghazali The Star Online April 8, 2014 Kuala Lumpur : Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department Datuk Seri Shahidan Kassim maintained that the Government was “most humane” to Rohingya refugees although it has not signed the United Nation convention. In response to a supplementary question in Parliament by Nasrudin Hassan (PAS-Temerloh), the minister said the Government would not forcibly send the refugees, who own proper legal documentation to go back to their countries. There are 132,187 refugees with United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) cardholders in the country. “We will not send them back unless they are willing to do so. It is not our policy to send them back where their lives would be in danger,” he said on Tuesday. He added that the Government had also borne the cost of sending back the refugees who had no proper legal documentation in the pa...

The majority of Rohingya in Bangladesh live in informal settlements, slums, or communities, with limited or no assistance. According to UNHCR, there are more than 200,000 undocumented Rohingya refugees in the country © Kyle Knight/IRIN By IRIN November 19, 2013 COX’S BAZAR - Limited humanitarian access continues to have an adverse effect on the lives of hundreds of thousands of Rohingya refugees in southeastern Bangladesh. Aid workers and activists say Rohingya communities fear that what little support they have might disappear as a result of threats made by the Bangladeshi government to further limit humanitarian activities.  “When we hear the humanitarians might leave I feel really bad. Whatever [medical] treatment and support we get, we wouldn’t get it anymore,” said Munrul Indrus, a Rohingya employee of an international humanitarian organization in the Cox’s Bazar area, who declined to give his real name. “At least now we have a latrine and running water and som...

By UNHCR November 11, 2013 BANGKOK, Thailand - Growing numbers of refugees and asylum-seekers are being detained in the Asia-Pacific region as states increasingly use detention to deter irregular migration, UNHCR and its partners have warned. These concerns were raised at a regional consultation on immigration detention for south and south-east Asia held last week in Bangkok. Co-hosted by UNHCR, the Asia Pacific Refugee Rights Network (APPRN) and the International Detention Coalition, the Thursday-Friday meeting brought together members of the region's civil society, national human rights institutions as well as other UN agencies and other partners. As a principle, the UN refugee agency opposes the detention of people seeking international protection. It believes that detention should only be used as a measure of last resort where it is determined to be necessary and proportionate in each individual case. In the Asia-Pacific region, rough estimates put the...

Dhaka Tribune September 14, 2013 They had talked with the refugees introducing themselves as 'journalists' Three foreigners were detained on Friday from the Kutupalong Rohingya refugee camp near Cox’s Bazar, for unauthorised entrance into the restricted zone. Two of the arrestees were from New Zealand and one from Singapore. According to an eyewitness account, the individuals entered the camp around 12pm without prior authorisation from local administration. They had cameras and laptops with them and talked with the refugees introducing themselves as “journalists.” Acting on a tip-off, police arrested the three and brought them to Ukhiya police station. However, the officer in charge of the station, Gias Uddin Mia, said they were not arrested but “taken into custody.” He also said the foreigners admitted they were conducting a research on the Rohingya people. Whether or not they were journalists could not be confirmed, he added.  

By Rachel Pannett The Wall Street Journal  September 7, 2013 This account of a boat journey by a young couple from Myanmar offers a close-up look at a major issue facing the Asia-Pacific region today: the swelling tide of ships carrying refugees toward Australia. The trip is one of the longest, and most perilous, immigration journeys in the world. Yet the numbers keep rising, as more and more people from Asia’s poorest countries seek refuge in a nation many associate with freedom, wealth and a better life. How to deal with the thousands of migrants on Asia’s seas will be a key dilemma for  the new conservative government in Australia, which won office in a national election Saturday, ending six years of center-left rule. Chapter One: Rising Tide The rickety fishing boat lurched in the dark as big sea swells rose and fell around it. It was about 11 p.m. one night in late June. On the open wooden deck huddled the men, including a phone seller,...