The Stateless Rohingya Blog

Rohingya people wait to receive their share of food aid from the World Food Program (WFP) at the Thae Chaung camp for internally displaced people in Sittwe, Rakhine state.   By  Steve Herman October 17, 2017  BANGKOK — The Rohingya minority community in Myanmar should rank as one of the most excluded, persecuted and vulnerable communities in the world. That is the conclusion of a pair of studies, prepared over a three-year-period, looking at the plight of the stateless group. The reports examining discrimination and inequality faced by the Rohingya paint a bleak picture. The London-based Equal Rights Trust, and Bangkok’s Institute for Human Rights and Peace Studies of Mahidol University, detailed through direct testimony and interviews with officials the layers of discrimination against the Rohingya, who are a Muslim ethnic group of uncertain origin. In Myanmar, which is also known as Burma, the Rohingya are stateless. Those who have left the coun...

Burmese presidential spokesman Ye Htut By Voice of America  November 21, 2013 Burma has rejected a U.N. resolution urging it to grant citizenship to Rohingya Muslims, a stateless ethnic minority group.  In a Facebook message published Thursday, Burmese presidential spokesman Ye Htut said Burma will not be pressured into giving citizens' rights to people who are not entitled to them under the law.  Under a 1982 citizenship law, the majority-Buddhist country recognizes about 130 ethnic groups as Burmese. But the list does not include the Rohingya, whom the Burmese government refer to as "Bengalis" or illegal migrants from Bangladesh.  A U.N. General Assembly human rights committee passed the resolution on the situation of the Rohingya on Tuesday. It also called for Burma to end violent attacks on the Muslim minority by Buddhist extremists.  Buddhist-Muslim violence erupted in Burma's western Rakhine state last year and has since spread...

FILE - Ethnic Rohingya refugees from Burma wave as they are transported by a wooden boat to a temporary shelter in Krueng Raya in Aceh Besar. Steve Herman  Voice of America October 28, 2013 BANGKOK — Activists in Southeast Asia say thousands of people are fleeing Bangladesh and Burma by sea, resuming a seasonal migration that has seen many head south in recent years. Nearly all are attempting to illegally enter Malaysia via Thailand. Monitors along the Burma-Bangladesh border estimate that 17,000 people have already left the area since August, mostly on big boats. The information comes from the non-governmental organization, the Arakan Project. Chris Lewa is the director of the research-based humanitarian group concerned with the plight of the stateless Rohingya, a minority Muslim ethnic group in the region. “Just in the last week or so we have nearly 4,000 people who are on the move. We are particularly concerned that this season, I would say from no...

Indonesia's Foreign Minister Marty Natalegawa attends the opening session of the 46th ASEAN Foreign Ministers' Meeting in Bandar Seri Begawan, Brunei, June 30, 2013. (File) Ron Corben Voice of America: July 10, 2013 BANGKOK — Indonesia is pressing Burma’s government to grant legal status to the country’s Muslim Rohingya. As more Rohingya seek asylum in Indonesia and elsewhere abroad, Ron Corben reports from Bangkok that Indonesia’s Foreign Minister Marty Natalegawa says Burma needs to take action to end inter-communal violence. Indonesia’s Foreign Minister, Marty Natalegawa, says Burma has to press on with democratic reforms and recognize the legal rights of hundreds of thousands of stateless Muslim Rohingya. Burma - also known as Myanmar - has been wracked by sectarian bloodshed over the past year that has led to more than 200 deaths and displaced tens of thousands. Fighting began in communities with large numbers of ethnic Rohingya, who are denied citi...