The Stateless Rohingya Blog

A woman refugee from Myanmar carries relief material handed over by the Hyderabad Zakat and Charitable Trust on Tuesday, even as others await their turn. — Photo: G. Ramakrishna The Hindu  November 26, 2013 About 250 Rohingya refugee families residing in different parts of the Old City received the donations as part of a programme taken up by the organisation Rahmathullah, a Rohingya refugee settled in the city was worried about getting warm clothes and blankets for his children. The dipping temperatures only increased his anxiety and with little earnings the 28-year-old labourer could not afford to buy woollens for his children. Thanks to timely help from the Hyderabad Zakat and Charitable Trust (HZCT) the family received woollens and blankets. Donations About 250 Rohingya refugee families residing in different parts of the Old City received the donations as part of a programme taken up by the organisation. “We saved our lives and came here leaving...

Photo: The Daily Star The Hindu News September 22, 2013   With the arrest of 107 Rohingya Muslims over the past three months for illegally trying to enter West Bengal, the Border Security Force (BSF) has taken up the matter with the Border Guards Bangladesh (BGB). Senior BSF officers, who were part of the delegation at the Director General-level talks held in Dhaka earlier this month, told  The Hindu  here on Sunday that they had urged the BGB “not to push them” into India. Owing to ethnic violence in Myanmar, Rohingya Muslims had been moving into Bangladesh over the last few years. From there they enter India in large numbers taking the help of touts, according to Additional Director General (East) BSF, B.D. Sharma. BSF authorities pointed out that such infiltration had been occurring near the border outposts in West Bengal’s Dakshin Dinajpur, Nadia, Malda and North 24 Parganas districts.  During talks with the BGB, the BSF authorities...

The Hindu News: June 30, 2013 Hundreds of Rohingya Muslims who came to the city escaping persecution in their native Burma, continue to face bad times. With knowledge of neither Urdu nor Telugu, they lose out on jobs here They came all the way to Hyderabad to escape persecution back home and for a better livelihood. But a year later, most of them have failed to land jobs. Reason: they couldn’t pick up local languages. Hundreds of Rohingya Muslims who came to the city in hope of better days continue to face bad times as job opportunities elude them as they do not know either Urdu or Telugu. Rohingyas from different provinces of Myanmar entered India sometime ago to escape violence in that country. Many of them live in small tenements in Hafeezbabanagar, Pahadeshareef, Balapur, Mir Momim Pahadi and Kishanbagh. Abdul Mabud, 24, who hails from Maungdaw in Myanmar, owned a shop in his hometown until he crossed over to India to escape clashes in his country ...

  Photo Eleven media The Hindu April 29, 2013 Myanmar’s 1982 citizenship law that made a Muslim ethnic minority stateless does not need to be amended, but should be applied fairly, a commission set up to assess last year’s sectarian violence in the Rakhine State said Monday. Fighting that broke out between Buddhist and Rohingya communities in the state killed at least 192 and left about 1,25,000 homeless. The government-appointed commission called for improved law enforcement, protection  of human rights and a ban on “hate language” and “extremist teachings.” It stopped short of recommending an amendment to the law that many claim is at the heart of the problem. “International organizations are trying to criticize the 1982 citizenship law regarding the Bengalis but the law is very suitable for us,” commission member Yin Yin Nwe said. “But the enforcement of the law is not clear because of the corruption of the local immigration officials,” he added...

Nowhere to go: Burmese refugees in Delhi. Photo: S. Subramanium Source The Hindu:  January 11, 2013 Refugees from Myanmar refuse to return to the country citing violence and discrimination National League of Democracy chairperson Aung San Suu Kyi’s return to active politics in May last year after over two decades of incarceration had raised the hopes of the hundreds of Burmese refugees in India. They had also rejoiced during her six-day visit to the Capital last November. Yet the refugees, especially the Rohingya Muslims, are not willing to go back to their home country citing continuing violence against them and would instead prefer to obtain refugee status in India.