The Stateless Rohingya Blog

Maungdaw, Arakan State:  The travel restriction is barring Rohingya students to join universities foracademic year of 2012, according to a student who prepare to join the Akyab University from Maungdaw. “I had applied to Maungdaw district immigration office for travel permit to join university with all necessary documents last week.”

Maungdaw, Arakan State:  No judge presented while hearing the case in Maungdaw judge court recently, said a lawyer from Maungdaw. “The judges come to the court when there is hearing, but not in the court room, sitting in their chamber in the court.”

voanews Photo: AP A refugee woman sits with her mother (l) and her children at an unregistered refugees camp, outside the official camp at Kutupalong. Hundreds of thousands of members of the Rohingya ethnic group fled to Bangladesh to escape persecution in neighboring Myanmar only find themselves trapped in a hellish international limbo. As Muslims, they were unwanted in Buddhist Myanmar. As foreigners, they are unwanted in Muslim Bangladesh, (File). Human rights groups say hundreds of ethnic Muslim Rohingya refugees from Burma have fled their temporary homes in Bangladesh, hoping to sail to nearby countries to escape discrimination and rights abuses. The flight of the refugees includes many women and comes as Burma reaches an agreement with Bangladesh to take back thousands of Rohingya refugees now living in camps. Human rights groups say more than two dozen vessels carrying Muslim Rohingya refugees have set sail into the Bay of Bengal since September amid few positive signs of impro...

By THE IRRAWADDY   Aung Thein Lin, former Rangoon mayor and USDP official, center, hints that Suu Kyi's party is under foreign influence. (Photo: Irrawaddy) An official from Burma's military-backed Union Solidarity and Development Party (USDP), which dominates the country's national Parliament, implied that the Burmese opposition party led by pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi is under the influence of foreign countries. Burma is at risk of being influenced by external powers because of “a certain political party” that is operating under the influence of foreign nations, said Aung Thein Lin, who is the former mayor of Rangoon and a leading MP representing the USDP. Although he did not mention either Suu Kyi or her National League for Democracy (NLD) by name, Aung Thein Lin’s remark was widely viewed as referring to the NLD because it was made at a meeting in Rangoon on Dec. 10 between USDP officials and representatives from a coalition of ten opposition parties that ...

By news.msn. Human rights groups say up to 25 boats of Burmese Muslim Rohingya refugees have set off from Bangladesh since September for Malaysia or Indonesia and may head on to Australia. Chris Lewa, Thailand-based co-ordinator for the Arakan Project, a human rights group supporting the Rohingya, says groups of up to 15 refugees may later seek to make the journey onwards to Australia. "In terms of (numbers of) boats I would say Australia for some is a secondary movement. But the boat leaving from Bangladesh in Arakan border are mostly heading to Malaysia," Ms Lewa said. "But we have observed a small number of Rohingya and maybe increase in the future of Rohingya who have been in Malaysia for a while and they are now moving towards Australia," she told AAP. Up to 300 Rohingya have made their way to Australia over the past three years, fleeing discrimination and destitution. The Rohingya, a Muslim minority, mostly live in Rakhine State in western Burma, but face dis...

News Stories © UNHCR Assistant High Commissioner Erika Feller and Aung San Suu Kyi. GENEVA, December 13 (UNHCR) – Erika Feller, the UN refugee agency's most senior protection official, recently paid a significant visit to Myanmar, where UNHCR has operations in Rakhine state in the west, and in the south-east of the country, where displacement along the Mynamar-Thai border is an issue. UNHCR estimates that northern Rakhine state hosts some 750,000 Muslim residents without citizenship. Independent observers have noticed important openings for humanitarian operations in Myanmar since the forming of a new government late last year. For the Assistant High Commissioner, this was reflected in more open and productive meetings with ministers and other senior officials and the permission given her to meet opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi. Feller spoke to UNHCR public information officers Babar Baloch and Leo Dobbs about her trip: Excerpts from the interview: Why did you go to Myanmar at ...

Teknaf, Bangladesh: The female Rohingya communities from northern Arakan who travel for medical treatment, are facing more difficult in Bangladesh than Burma, said a female patient from Maungdaw. “We are checking whole body including female private area by Border Guard Bangladesh (BGB) female staff while entering to Bangladesh entry point (Teknaf Land port) and Dum Dum Meah check post, for searching drug (Yaba) which come from Burma to Bangladesh).”