Pastor from Myanmar helps refugee kids gain a brighter future at learning centre

KUALA LUMPUR: When Myanmar refugee Jonathan Tanhla (pic) started giving lessons to five refugee children four years ago, little did he know that his little grouping would soon grow into a school of over 100 kids.

“Their parents mostly work all day at restaurants and retail stores, while others are based in faraway places like Cameron Highlands. Hence, they have little time to take care of their children.

“My wife and I would teach these children basic English, Mathematics and Science. These are very important school subjects that will prepare them for the working life when they grow up,” he said in an interview.

Tanhla, 35, is a pastor and university graduate who speaks fluent English. He and his wife Grace Tandar started out at their tiny flat in Jalan Imbi.

Today, the couple have 107 children at their United Learning Centre in a rented bungalow nearby.

The couple are assisted by 15 volunteer teachers. Ten of them are Malay-sians.

The students, aged between four and 16, are also taught Art and Bahasa Malaysia.

Tanhla said the school is open to all children from Myanmar.

“It does not matter if they are Christian, Buddhist or Muslim, because this is a place for education. That is why I named it the United Learning Centre,” he added.

Tanhla said more than 100,000 Myanmar nationals have fled persecution in their country and sought refuge in Malaysia. But, it is not all rosy for them while here as they face employment difficulties.

That is why Tanhla left Myanmar in 2006 in a mission to help his people.

“As a person of Chin ethnicity, the majority of whom are Christians, we face discrimination and persecution in our country.

“Many of us were forced to flee our homeland. We still find it hard to make a living,” he added.

While he still harbours the dream of seeing his people return to Myanmar, Tanhla admitted that it would not occur soon unless a major change happens in Myanmar.

The Star

Burma’s Chin Christians face persecution in Buddhist Na Ta La schools

CALCUTTA—A reformist government may have replaced the military dictatorship in Burma, but that hasn’t stopped the persecution of ethnic minorities, according to human rights groups.

U.S. President Barack Obama’s historic visit to the country in November highlighted the decades-old plight of the Muslim Rohingya minority, and recent reports show that Christians — largely found in Burma’s Chin state — have also been subject to religious persecution.

At the heart of the issue are 29 special schools run by Buddhist monks and known locally by the acronym Na Ta La (for Border Areas National Races Youth Development Training schools).

A 15-year-old Chin boy who ran away from a Na Ta La school last year spoke to the Toronto Star about the abuse.

“My head was shaved and I had to wear monks’ robes after school hours. It was the rule for all 15 (Christian) Chin pupils in our class,” said the boy, who along with his parents fled recently to India’s Manipur state. “Sometimes some among us refused to memorize Buddhist scriptures and bow down before Buddhist monks. Then we were caned.”

The Na Ta La schools, which function outside the mainstream education system, are run by the Ministry of Religious Affairs and the military-dominated Ministry of Border Affairs. All pupils must study Buddhist scriptures, along with regular school subjects.

Because fees for mainstream schools are expensive, many struggling Chin families seek out the Na Ta La residential schools, which, apart from providing almost free food and education, guarantee government jobs for the students once they graduate.

Chin Human Rights Organization (CHRO), which is based in Nepean, Ont., recently published a 162-page report called Threats to Our Existence, which details the role played by Na Ta La schools in forced assimilation, as well as other stories of persecution of Christians in Burma.

In 2010, headmaster of a Na Ta La school in Rangoon told his

Chin pupils that “if you don’t want to be monks, you have to join the military,” according to the report.

“On the pretext of providing free education, the Na Ta La schools force the poor Chin children to convert to Buddhism,” said Rachel Fleming, CHRO’s advocacy director. “It’s part of the government’s vision for nation-building, which is predicated on the slogan ‘To be a patriotic Burmese citizen is to be a Buddhist.’ ”

Since the opening of Na Ta La schools in the mid-1990s, they have converted some 1,000 Chin to Buddhism, according to activists.

About 90 per cent of Burmese are Buddhist, but about half a million Christians live in Chin state, on the border with India. About 90 per cent of the population of Chin state is Christian.

To escape abuses under the junta in the 1980s, the Chin began fleeing to India’s northeastern state of Mizoram. Today, around 110,000 Chin refugees live in India. Another 50,000 have fled to Malaysia.

New Delhi-based CHRO activist Van Hmun Lian said that forced labour, forced conscription, physical abuse and extortion continue to push Chin people to flee the country.

“Security forces and other officials have begun destroying Christian crosses, desecrating churches and are often not allowing religious assemblies,” said Lian. “By forcing the Chin children to convert to Buddhism, they have taken the religious persecution to a new level.”

One Chin girl told CHRO that after she ran away from a Na Ta La school in Mindat last year, the school monks came to her house with some soldiers looking for her.

“They told me, ‘You have to return to school or else you will be forced to join the army.’ I was sick,” she said. “I realized that as long as I was in Burma, the soldiers would trace me. So I had no choice but to flee the country.”

The 20-year-old now lives as a refugee in Malaysia.

Salai Za Uk Ling, program director of the CHRO, said the discriminatory institutions and practices of the military regime continue to persecute the Chin.

“President Thein Sein’s government claims that religious freedom is protected by law, but in reality Buddhism is treated as the de facto state religion,” he said.

Mark Farmaner, head of Burma Campaign UK said that Burma appears to have made it a state policy to eliminate its ethnic minorities if they cannot be assimilated.

“The persecution of Christian Chin is just a different branch of the same tree which leads to persecution of the Muslim Rohingya,” said Farmaner. “It stems from the government’s nationalist belief in Burma Buddhist superiority over other races and religions, and this is the root cause of conflict and dictatorship in Burma.”

The U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom Report 2012, released in July, documented the situation of religious rights in Burma during the previous year. It said there are still restrictions on worship by the non-Buddhist minorities.

At the end of October, the Burmese government announced it would open another Na Ta La school in Paletwa Township, which also has a Christian majority.

The move is “a clear sign that the Burmese government intends to continue its policy of forced assimilation under the guise of ‘development’,” said CHRO’s Fleming.

Shaikh Azizur Rahman is a freelance journalist.

Talk of repatriation spurs tension in border camps

The Nation 

 

Courtesy of The Border Consortium

News about the construction of an alleged "resettlement" site in Karen State and claims that a dozen other sites have been earmarked for refugees on the Thai-Myanmar border have led to heightened tension in the nine border camps.

The increase in anxiety among the 140,000-plus refugees was the subject of an 18-minute video report shown recently at the Foreign Correspondents Club in Bangkok.

The film - 'Nothing About Us Without Us', which is posted on YouTube, was funded by the Burma Partnership and backed by groups such as the Karen Women's Organisation. It reveals the psychological strains linked to a possible return after nearly three decades in camps on the border.

The main message from the film and a panel of representatives at the FCCT was that refugees want to be part of the repatriation process, with the freedom to pick when and where they return.

A key reason for the tension is the uneven nature of the reforms in Myanmar - while the Burman majority in central Myanmar have begun to see benefits from the dropping of sanctions, a managed exchange rate, liberalisation of the media, etc, ethnic areas have seen relatively little change on the ground. The military remains in many parts of eastern Myanmar, along with hundreds of thousands of landmines.

After 60 years of civil strife, ethnic minorities still have enormous scepticism about the reforms overseen by President Thein Sein. The ceasefire process has been repeatedly abused over the years and often led to greater inequities. Indeed, the plunder of Kachin State after the 1994 ceasefire - widespread land grabs, mass logging and social decay because of exploitative labor deals, greater drug use and the spread of HIV/Aids - is a prime cause of the conflict that has raged in the far north for the past 18 months.

While Western governments have hailed the turnaround, ethnic groups are upset that the regime's "development first" focus, and the shocking stampede of land confiscation - while demands for greater autonomy in their areas have been pushed to the side.

'Nothing About Us Without Us' accuses the UN refugee agency, UNHCR, of planning to repatriate refugees from the border camps with the Thai and Myanmar governments.

But the UN agency denies this, saying that things are still in a preparatory phase and that it wants a voluntary return when refugees are ready and able to go home.

The plight of the border refugees was discussed at a two-day conference at Chulalongkorn University this week.

Academics and other "stakeholders" suggested that the Karen and others in the camps may have to pick the best of several less favourable options if the reform process in Myanmar stalls. Some would go back and work in special economic zones planned across the border, while others would resettle abroad (following the 80,000 who have already gone to the US and a dozen other countries), and a smaller number may attempt to stay in Thailand, despite opposition to them remaining by bodies such as the National Security Council.

But there was general agreement that nothing was likely to happen in the short term.

UNHCR official Iain Hall said the desire to return home was "always in people's heart". But he noted that "the mood for return is not yet there".

Professor Thitinan Pongsudhirak, just back from another visit to Yangon, said he was not very optimistic about Myanmar's immediate prospects, predicting that development would be "very patchy and Yangon-based", partly because the geography and terrain in Myanmar was difficult and expatriates "don't want to go to the boondocks".

"Jobs aren't going to spread to Shan State or to Chin State. You'll see Yangon resembling what we saw in Vietnam." He expected that migrants would continue to flock to Thailand for work.

Thitinan, who admitted to having a low opinion of almost all Thai governments, said authorities in Bangkok "need to think very long-term" instead of the usual "ad hoc fix-it-as-you-go approach".

Refugees in the camps should be offered residency, citizenship rights and eventually "voting rights".

"A lot [of the refugees in the camps] will not go back. Most, I think, will stay," he predicted. "Thai authorities need to think about that.

"Ultimately, we need global solutions. Regional [solutions] also offer some headway. Ultimately, it'll be piecemeal and self-help. Refugees will increasingly become migrant labourers."

And, over time, the role of the Tatmadaw - the military in Myanmar - would reduce.

Other academics lamented at the Thai military's conservative mindset which viewed the refugees as a threat to national security and required that they be confined to camps - even after 28 years.

They noted that Myanmar was going through a fragile transitional phase, and that if governments really wanted the refugees to return they needed to offer durable solutions - and for people who had lost everything in fleeing to Thailand, that might entail plots of arable land for them to farm and raise families.

Myanmar peace negotiator Aung Min has signaled that Nay Pyi Daw would accept birth records of ethnic children born in the border camps or at the Mae Tao Clinic in Mae Sot. But academics said the government would also need to recognize the education children received in the border camps - often rated as better than Thai state schools - if young returnees wanted to do further study at university in their homeland.

Cynthia Maung, the acclaimed Karen doctor who runs the Mae Tao Clinic, said her people wanted the peace process to continue and to be serious. Troops had to be withdrawn and landmines removed. Development projects were "causing a lot of forced displacement" and further conflict.

Land confiscation was ongoing, with forced relocations and no proper discussion about restitution for people who lost their homes and property before fleeing to Thailand.

"The military is everywhere... the livelihoods of people is threatened. Since they see many army [personnel] around their village, they don't feel very confident about the ceasefire process. The initial stage of the process is still very fragile."

Japanese foundation delivers aid to Mon refugees

The Nippon Foundation said that it had completed the shipment of relief goods including rice and medicines to Mon State on December 25, the first of an expected US $3 million donation to ethnic refugees.

The Nippon Foundation president Mr.Yohei SASAKAWA, Chairman Nai Htaw Mon of the New Mon State Party (NMSP), peace negotiator Aung Min and State Minister Ohn Myint at the State office in Mawlamyine, Mon State in December 22. (Photo: Hein Htet / Mizzima)

The Japanese NGO said the activity was designed to promote peace between Burma’s central government and the country’s ethnic minorities.

It said that the supplies will reach the internally displaced people of the area by the end of the year. More than 4,000 ethnic Mon refugees have been displaced by armed conflict between Burmese government forces and ethnic rebels.

Relief goods will be delivered to other areas for displaced minorities as soon as transportation routes are secured, the Nippon Foundation said in a statement.

The Japanese foundation, a nonprofit grant-making organization, is the first private group to deliver humanitarian aid into the region under an MoU between the Burmese government and an ethnic bloc of minority groups: the United Nationalities Federal Council (UNFC).

The UNFC is an alliance of 11 armed ethnic groups, all of which have signed ceasefire agreements—some tentatively— with the Burmese government.

"I would like to make the present relief efforts a catalyst for realizing peace," said Yohei Sasakawa, the Chairman of the Nippon Foundation who is also Japan’s Goodwill Ambassador for the Welfare of National Races in Burma.

Chairman Nai Htaw Mon of the New Mon State Party (NMSP) said he welcomed the aid, adding that it would constitute the first step toward promoting political dialogue with the government.

“Now, due to the transportation and geographic situation, the aid will preliminarily be provided to Mon and Karen areas. Meanwhile, negotiations regarding the provision of aid to other ethnic areas are underway, and will lead to delivery when finished,” said Nai Hong Sar Bon Khine, an NMSP Foreign Affairs official, speaking on a trip to Japan organized by the Nippon Foundation last month.

“It is unprecedented that such a large aid package is to be given to the armed forces of a minority group, and an extraordinary move for the [Myanmar] government,” said a previous statement released by the Nippon Foundation.

Decades of conflicts between the Burmese army and minority groups have caused more than one million refugees, mostly ethnic minorities, to be displaced among Burma’s mountain regions and in neighboring countries such as India, China and Thailand.

Aung Min, a Chief Minister in the President’s Office and the government’s principal peace negotiator, said at a ceremony held with Mon residents on December 22 that the Nippon Foundation was a representative of those increasing international NGOs who have begun to support the building of peace in Burma.

Studying in a permanent home

A surprise success, Dear Burma School has been warmly welcomed by migrants

Bankok Post 

Dear Burma School came into being 10 years ago. On the first day the school opened, classes were conducted in front of Ramkamhaeng University's student club building, where they stayed for several months.

Migrant workers apply an artistic touch to drawings that reflect their feelings about work and life in Thailand and as students of Dear Burma School.

The workers organised the classes themselves although it proved quite a hurdle to draw people at first. Refugees and activists also joined the classes eventually.

Perceptive to the Thai authorities' nervousness at witnessing many foreigners gathering in one place, Myint Wai, who would later be named the school director, discussed with the Thai-Burma Coordinating Committee, which included many organisations on Myanmar affairs, the best way to proceed in organising educational activities.

The Thai-Burma Coordinating Committee later decided the school should move to the Christian Students Centre in Bangkok and Myint Wai took the helm of the school.

The school remained at the centre from February 2003 to May 2005. After May 2005, Myint Wai and the Thai Action Committee for Democracy of Burma made arrangements to have the classes move to nearby Sammachivasilp School, a private institution, next to the Asia Hotel. It has remained there since. The private school is opened to the Myanmar workers on Sunday.

After class is over, the workers clean up the rooms so the school will be spotless for normal classes on Monday.

"We pay the school a token fee just to show our gratitude. The school has helped contribute to the success of the classes for the migrant workers," Myint Wai said.

A similar migrant worker school opened a year ago in Soi Petchaburi 11, not too far from Sammachivasilp School. Sponsored by the International Labour Organisation, it holds classes on Mondays and Wednesdays so those who work on Sundays can take courses.

Dear Burma School is thought to be one of the biggest and oldest schools for Myanmar migrant workers in Thailand. Similar facilities have been set up by non-government organisations in Chiang Mai, Tak and Samut Sakhon's Mahachai district, also known as Little Myanmar for its large population of Myanmar workers.

"I'm pleased with how far we've come. Gradually we have been able to talk about human rights and democracy with the workers who don't have much education. We have helped hone their skills, which will be useful for improving their quality of life," Myint Wai said.

Taiwan gives aid to refugee camps along Thailand-Myanmar border

Bangkok, Dec. 29 (CNA) Taiwan has donated a fund to a charity program aimed at feeding nutritious lunches to preschool children in refugee camps along Thailand-Myanmar border, Taiwan's representative office in Thailand said Friday.

Henry Chen, head of the office -- Taiwan's de facto embassy in Thailand in the absence of diplomatic ties, signed a cooperation agreement on Friday with Sally Thompson, the appointed executive director of the Thailand Burmese Border Consortium (TBC), on behalf of the Republic of China government, the office said.

In the agreement, the ROC government promised US$160,000 for the two-year program in 2013-2014, which will be jointly carried out by the TBC and the Taipei Overseas Peace Service operated by the Taiwan-based Chinese Association for Human Rights.

Around 3,800 children at more than 40 preschool centers in three refugee camps in Tak Province of Thailand will benefit from the free lunch program, the office said.

Expressing thanks for the donation, Thompson said the ROC government is the only country in Asia that supports TBC-initiated programs. Refugees along the border were very thankful, she said.

Apart from the government aid, Taiwanese businesses in Thailand have also donated money and supplements to the Thailand-Myanmar border refugee camps, Chen said.

The donations, however, were still not enough, said Kevin Lee, head of the Taipei Overseas Peace Service team stationed in Thailand. He told CNA he wished there were civil organizations that can regularly provide financial aid to support the refugee camp preschools.

Meanwhile, Thompson said that although the military regime in Myanmar has promised and begun promoting political reforms, the Burmese refugees must still stay in the refugee camps until there is true and lasting peace.

It is now still not certain when they will be able to return to their homeland, Thompson said.

If they do go back in the future, she said she hopes the ROC government can continue its support for the people so they can rebuild their homes.

Social Welfare to collect data on non-locals with refugee status

PETALING JAYA: The Social Welfare Department will collect data on foreign beggars with refugee status.

According to an official, the department already has information on foreign and local beggars.

“We will expand the survey to include foreigners carrying refugee cards,'' the official added.

The department identified a total of 119 foreign beggars in Malaysia between January and June. Of this, 57 were men and 62 women.

Suhakam commissioner James Nayagam lauded the move, saying that accurate data would help authorities deal with the situation in an appropriate manner.

“Right now, refugees are being forced into begging because they have no choice.

“They are not allowed to work or go to school here, so they have to beg for a living.”

He said that there was an increasing number of children begging on the streets, either directly or by selling things.

“Suhakam recommends that these refugees be provided with education and healthcare, and that their parents be allowed to work,” he said.

The Star reported yesterday that foreign beggars working for syndicates were stationing themselves at strategic spots, including traffic junctions. They also sell items like pens and tissue paper.

The foreign beggars have caused uneasiness among Malaysians and invoke scenes straight out of impoverished countries.

Federal CID director Comm Datuk Seri Mohd Bakri Zinin said most foreign beggars in the Klang Valley were linked to syndicates but he did not think the beggars were victims of human trafficking.

MCA Public Services and Complaints Departmenr head Datuk Seri Michael Chong estimated that each beggar could earn between RM7,000 and RM10,000 a month.

Last year, the Welfare Department rounded up 1,408 beggars. Of the total, 318 were foreigners.

The Star

The long road to freedom

Sui Ting Cinzah and her four children are hiding in the jungle. There are flies, lots of them, biting, and they lose their shoes in a river. There are leeches, it rains, and they have only the clothes on their back.

An agent tells them to run and Sui loses sight of her children. It's excruciating, not being able to see them. Are they in front? Behind? Where are they? The youngest, Rosie, is 8 years old.

"I'm always hiding part of my story, but I will tell you today. I feel really strong. I am not crying today."

Sui is sitting on a comfortable couch in a modest rental home in Nelson. It's a far cry from the horrors of her past life, escaping Myanmar as a Burmese Chin refugee. There are academic and sporting certificates on the mantelpiece and walls, and a photograph of Sui's parents, who are still in Myanmar, in traditional Chin costume. There is a family photograph with Sui, her husband Bual, their daughters Bawi, 25, Lily, 23, and Rosie, 16, and their sons Lal, 21, and Lian, 19.

Sui's voice is high-pitched, sweet and animated. She runs to get a map of the world, and draws a path from Myanmar to Malaysia through Thailand with her finger. She gets a pen and writes words on a piece of paper, to help explain what happened in 2005. One of the words is "prison".

Sui says her life was "pretty" and happy until 1988. She grew up in a small village in the Chin state, got a good education in the city, and became a teacher - "a good job". She married Bual in 1984, they had five happy children, and a big garden. There was no need to buy fruit or vegetables. "We loved our life."

The family's village of about 800 people, surrounded by forest in Chin State in Myanmar, was only three kilometres from a military camp in the town where Sui and Bual taught at an intermediate school. There was "no car, no bike, no horse". Bual and Sui walked to work every day - from Bungkhua to Lungler.

But one day in 1988, says Sui with a small voice, 3000 students were killed by the military. The pro-democracy protests were the largest uprising in Myanmar's political history. Everything changed. Things got "worse and worse", the army people were "rude", and did "terrible things". They kicked villagers' doors while they were sleeping, killed their animals without permission, hit people and forced them to be porters. They killed three people in Bungkhua one day, while Sui was away at a teachers' training course. 

Sui's husband fled to Malaysia in 1996. It was too dangerous for him to stay, because "he helped democratic people". He was in and out of prison in Malaysia because he was an illegal immigrant, until he got refugee status two or three years later. Sui didn't hear from him until then. She thought he was dead. It was, she says, "so hard". When they finally reunited, nine years after he left, she didn't recognise him. Her husband had no front teeth.

"I said, "No - he is not my husband". I couldn't recognise my husband."

Sui says when she fled Myanmar with her four youngest children in 2005, leaving her sick eldest daughter with her parents, the journey looked like "a big hill". She never would have dreamt of a life in New Zealand, gaining citizen ship last year and her children winning awards at school prize-givings.

The memory of one incident is the hardest to talk about. It's when the paper comes out. And the pen. In 2005, Bual paid for an agent to help Sui and their children get to Malaysia, but they were arrested and thrown in jail with about 20 other Burmese refugees just before getting to Thailand. They were together for three days and then separated like dirty washing.

Sui and Lily were put in a female prison, Lal, a teenager, was put in a men's prison, and Rosie and Lian were put in a child prison. Sui gets out her tattered Chin-translated Bible, and points to a passage that she underlined in jail. It's Matthew 10:26-31 - "fear not them which kill the body, but are not able to kill the soul". Sui says it gave her energy and stopped her from going mad. "That time was very hard. I had never been in jail. I was a school teacher, and very proud of my life," she says.

Sui and her children were freed 18 days later and carried on their journey. They couldn't go back, only forward. She laughs nervously as she describes the fishing boat they used to get to Thailand in darkness. It was a 10-person boat, and took 40 people.

She says 16 of them squashed into a small car from there, which dropped them at the edge of the jungle. They walked and walked, only at night, and when they got close to Malaysia, an agent's car came and picked up the two youngest.

The car was intercepted and the children were put in a Malaysian prison for two weeks, until the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees reunited them with Bual. They didn't recognise their dad at first, and vice versa, after such a long separation. It was, as Sui says with another understatement, a "very strange situation".

The Cinzah family came to New Zealand in 2006, and Bawi joined them three years later. Sui's job is to help new arrivals in Nelson as a cross-cultural worker for Refugee Services. Lily has finished an accounting and commerce degree - the first Chin woman to graduate from a New Zealand university, and has been accepted for a masters programme in Melbourne. Lal is studying civil engineering at the University of Canterbury, and Lian will join him there next year, with hopes of becoming a mechanical engineer.

Sui describes being at a Nelson College for Boys prize-giving in 2007, only a year after they arrived in New Zealand. She was crying, but the Kiwis around her would have had no idea why. When she was in the jungle she thought her family would die, but here was her boy on stage getting an award.

Sometimes when Sui sleeps, she is in the jungle again. She wakes up and tries to run. But then she remembers where she is. She is in Nelson. And life is pretty again. 

http://www.stuff.co.nz

Myanmar refugees swim into Malaysia: police

UNLUCKY ESCAPE:One man from a boatload of illegal immigrants was killed after being struck by a boat’s propellers when he jumped into the sea

AFP, KUALA LUMPUR

 

Rohingya Muslim refugees from Myanmar disembark at a beach on Langkawi Island, Malaysia, on Sunday.

Photo: AFP

About 500 Burmese swam the last 500m to enter Malaysia illegally at the end of a 15-day boat journey at the weekend, leaving one dead, police said yesterday.

Police said they had so far found 482 people, including the captain of the 30m vessel, since Sunday and are looking for a “handful” more still hiding out on the northwestern island of Langkawi in the Malacca Straits.

They are believed to be one of the largest groups of Rohingya Muslims to have reached Malaysia this year after fleeing sectarian violence at home.

Police said the immigrants claimed to have paid US$300 each to an agent in troubled Rakhine for the trip, which media reports said left most of them ill with some requiring hospital care.

Langkawi police chief Harrith Kam Abdullah said the captain of the boat was arrested on Monday, but he had denied any knowledge of payments to an agent.

The Star newspaper also reported that one man was killed after being hit by the boat’s propellers when he jumped into sea and had been buried at a Muslim cemetery in Langkawi on Monday.

The immigrants have been handed over to the Malaysian immigration department to be processed at detentions centers nationwide.

Clashes between Buddhists and the Rohingya in Myanmar have left scores of people dead and displaced more than 115,000 people since June.

Thousands have sought refuge in Malaysia, a largely Muslim country that has a big Rohingya population.

Malaysia’s maritime agency said last month it “rescued” 40 shipwreck survivors, who are thought to be Muslim Rohingya, who had been denied entry to Singapore.

Special qualities refugees bring

OPINION: Anyone who read the heartwarming tale of Burmese woman Sui Ting Cinzah could not fail to have been moved by her journey from Myanmar to Nelson.

Sui's battle for freedom for her family shows real courage in the face of adversity and reminds us of the diversity of people living among us.

Sui, who has been living in Nelson since 2006, escaped Myanmar as a Burmese Chin refugee with her husband Bual, and their three daughters and two sons.

They led a simple, but happy life in Myanmar until it all changed in 1988 when the military killed 3000 students. Her husband was forced to flee to Malaysia in 1996 and she followed with four of her children in 2005. Her eldest daughter was sick so had to remain with her parents. Sui was arrested with her children in 2005 just before arriving in Thailand. She then had to suffer the heartbreak of the family being split up. The Chinzah family finally arrived in New Zealand the following year.

The children have all been successful, but her proudest moment was when one of her sons won a prize at Nelson College, a year after arriving in the country. She is grateful to be here, but we should be equally thankful that Sui and her family settled in Nelson. Families like hers bring richness and diversity to our community.

The Government is meeting an obligation to the international community by taking in a set refugee "quota" - up to 750 a year. It does this voluntarily, and New Zealand is one of a handful of countries that operates a regular refugee quota programme. It is run under the auspices of the United Nations High Commission for Refugees, which puts forward those it deems most in need of resettlement. Between 1980 and 2002, 16,556 refugees and displaced persons were resettled under the Refugee Quota Programme.

Nelson has been providing a safe haven for refugees for 40 years - though, of course, displaced people from other lands have been settling here for far longer. We now host just on 770 refugees and their families, more than half of them Chin or Burmese. It is natural to assume that they will count themselves lucky to be here and in a position to live far better lives than in their places of birth.

Many people are critical of New Zealand's immigration policy and of allowing the number of refugees we do. Immigration is always a controversial subject. In Europe, Britain and Germany have announced that their immigration policies have failed.

All nations consist of peoples who once moved from somewhere else, but we citizens of New Zealand are particularly aware of this. We ought therefore to be more grateful for how much our national heritage owes to incomers. 

Although, on the whole, immigration is both a symptom and a cause of prosperity, some argue it holds back earnings for many Kiwi workers, puts a strain on public services and affects the quality of communal life. However, not everyone wants help or knows how to ask for it, and clearly the sort of trauma some refugees have faced before arriving here leaves deep scars.

Sui's story reminds the rest of us of how lucky we are, living in a paradise that many of us were fortunate to be born into. 

http://www.stuff.co.nz

Give the UN access to Rohingya asylum seekers in Thailand

Phil Robertson
Sunai Phasuk
Brad Adams
John Sifton
Human Rights Watch
January 9, 2013 1:00 am

The Thai government should immediately halt its plan to deport 73 ethnic Rohingya back to Myanmar. Thai authorities should allow the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), the UN refugee agency, unhindered access to these and other boat migrants from Myanmar's Arakan State, to determine whether they are seeking asylum and whether they are qualified for refugee status.

On January 1, near Bon Island in Phuket province, Thai authorities intercepted a boatload of 73 Rohingya migrants - including as many as 20 children, some as young as three - that contained likely asylum-seekers. After providing food, water and other supplies to the passengers and refuelling the boat, Thai authorities initially planned to push the boat back out to sea, en route to Malaysia's Langkawi Island. When they found that the rickety, overcrowded boat had cracks and that many passengers were too weak to endure a stormy sea voyage, the authorities brought the group ashore to the Phuket Immigration Office. By 4pm on January 2, two trucks with all 73 Rohingya were heading to Ranong province for deportation back to Myanmar.

The Thai government should scrap its inhumane policy of summarily deporting Rohingya, who have been brutally persecuted in Myanmar, and honour their right to seek asylum. The UNHCR should be permitted to screen all Rohingya arriving in Thailand to identify and assist those seeking refugee status.

The Thai government's so-called "help on" policy fails to provide Rohingya asylum-seekers with protection required under international law, and in some cases increases their risk. Under this policy, the Thai navy is under orders to intercept Rohingya boats that come close to the Thai coast. Upon intercepting a boat, officials provide the boat with fuel, food, water and other supplies on condition that the boats sail onward to Malaysia or Indonesia. All passengers must remain on their own boats during the re-supply.

Should a boat land on Thai soil or be found to be unsafe, Thai immigration officials will step in to enforce deportation by land. This "soft deportation" process has resulted in Rohingya being sent across the Thai-Myanmar border at Ranong province, where people smugglers await deported Rohingya to exact exorbitant fees to transport them to Malaysia. Those unable to pay the smuggling fees are forced into labour to pay off the fees, condemning them to situations amounting to human trafficking.

Thailand has repeatedly stated its commitment to combat human trafficking, yet by deporting Rohingya into the hands of people smugglers, they are making them vulnerable to trafficking.

In January 2009, Thailand's National Security Council, led by then-prime ninister Abhisit Vejjajiva, authorised the navy to intercept incoming Rohingya boats and detain the passengers before pushing them back to sea. Later that year, Thai security forces were captured on video towing boats with Rohingya out to sea, which the government initially denied, but which Abhisit later conceded, saying, "I have some reason to believe some of this happened." While the recent "help on" strategy has meant that intercepted boats are re-provisioned, the Thai navy is still pushing back to sea boats filled with Rohingya, with some deadly results.

Thailand's response to arriving Rohingya asylum-seekers contrasts sharply with the policy in Malaysia, where the authorities have routinely allowed the UN refugee agency access to arriving Rohingya. Those recognised by the agency as refugees are released from immigration detention.

Myanmar authorities have long persecuted the Rohingya, members of a Muslim minority group who have lived in Myanmar for generations. Government and military authorities in Arakan State regularly apply severe restrictions on the Rohingya's freedom of movement, assembly and association, levy demands for forced labour, engage in religious persecution, and confiscate land and resources. Myanmar's 1982 Citizenship Law effectively denies the Rohingya citizenship, leaving them stateless.

Each year hundreds of thousands of Rohingya in Arakan State flee repression by the Myanmar military and dire poverty. The situation significantly worsened in late 2012 following communal violence in June and October targeting Rohingya and other Muslim groups. The arrival of the 73 Rohingya in Phuket on January 1 was the first acknowledged interception that included women and children on board. Many more boats are expected to set sail from Myanmar in the coming months.

Under the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, everyone has the right to seek asylum from persecution. While Thailand is not a party to the 1951 Refugee Convention, under customary international law the Thai government has an obligation of "non-refoulement" - not to return anyone to a place where their life or freedom would be at risk.

The Thai government should ensure that its laws and procedures recognise the protection needs of ethnic Rohingya. The UNHCR has the technical expertise to screen for refugee status and the mandate to protect refugees and stateless people. Effective UNHCR screening of all boat arrivals would help the Thai government determine who is entitled to refugee status.

Refugee screening is crucial for protecting Rohingya asylum-seekers, and the Thai government should allow this critical process. Until the UNHCR is allowed to conduct refugee screening, the Thai government should halt forcible returns of Rohingya boat people.

More refugees fleeing Burma head for Malaysia

04 January 2013, KUALA LUMPUR – More undocumented migrants including Rohingya refugees from Burma are entering Malaysia via sea route after the outbreak of communal conflicts in Rakhine State.

Due to safety consideration, refugees from various part of Burma tend to use the land route via Thailand to enter Malaysia but current development has shown that more are choosing the sea as an alternative.

Rohingyas are known to sail from western Burma to Thailand before entering Malaysia through jungles and plantations between two countries. More Rohingyas, however, are doing the direct sail to avoid landing at Thailand.

Turbulence at Andaman Sea and Bay of Bengal, besides lack of food and drinking water, however proved too hard to be endured and eventually cost lives.

More than 150 refugees were killed and went missing when two boats capsized at Bangladesh's water on their journey to Malaysia in October and November last year.

On Christmas eve, Malaysian maritime enforcer arrested 125 undocumented migrants and another 500 on 30 December, both near to Langkawi Island, not far from the border with Thailand.

In the incident of 30th December, 500 refugees including children were forced to jump off from the boat to swim to the nearby shore to avoid detection. At least one drowned after not being able to finish the 500 meter distance.

Besides receiving refugees, Malaysia also becomes the transit point for refugees from Afghanistan and Iran who are heading to Australia via Indonesia.

Malaysia faces Rohingya influx

This group of men in Kuala Lumpur say they were forced to flee Myanmar because of persecution. Some of them have arrived as recently as this week, risking their lives to come by sea.

But they managed to avoid getting detained unlike those on the boat that arrived on Malaysia’s shores this week.

One Rohingya drowned trying to swim ashore and the others detained by Malaysian authorities.

Anecdotal evidence suggests a marked increase in the number of Rohingyas fleeing to Malaysia since the anti-Muslim violence broke out in Myanmar, last June.

The UN High Commissioner for Refugees UNHCR says it can’t yet estimate the number of Rohingyas displaced or fled to other countries.

Even before the recent influx, the UNHCR here had already registered 25,000 Rohingya as refugees. But there are still thousands more to be registered just like these people behind me.

Malaysia hasn't yet ratified the United Nation’s charter on refugees, leaving the refugees here with very few rights.

They cannot work or send their children to state schools and are vulnerable to arrest. But the Malaysian government says it’s doing what it can.

Rohingya activists call on the international community to do more to save them from the state-sponsored plight.

The United Nations has already described Rohingyas as the world’s most persecuted minority.


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450 Myanmar asylum seekers reach Malaysia, 1 dead

In this Nov. 11, 2012, photo, Muslim refugees who fled arson attacks that drove them from their neighborhood in the Myanmar port of Kyaukphyu in late October sit under makeshift shelters beside their flotilla of wooden fishing boats on a beach in Sin Thet Maw, Myanmar. Malaysian police said about 450 asylum seekers from Myanmar landed in Malaysia Sunday, Dec. 30, 2012, after a dangerous boat journey that left one dead. 

AP PHOTO/TODD PITMAN

KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia—Police say about 450 asylum seekers from Myanmar have landed in Malaysia after a dangerous boat journey that left one dead.

They are one of the largest groups of Myanmar’s Rohingya Muslims who’ve reached Malaysia this year after leaving their violence-scarred hometowns.

A police official on Malaysia’s northern Langkawi island says the asylum seekers arrived Sunday after a roughly two-week journey on a wooden boat.

One man drowned while trying to swim ashore, while the others are in police custody.

The official couldn’t say whether they’ll be permitted to stay. He spoke on condition of anonymity Monday because he couldn’t issue public statements.

The UN’s refugee agency has about 25,000 Rohingyas registered in Muslim-majority Malaysia. Some came this year following Muslim-Buddhist sectarian violence in Myanmar’s Rakhine state.

UNHCR concern over reported Rohingya deportations

Photo: David Swanson/IRIN

 

Thousands have fled persecution in Myanmar

 

BANGKOK, 4 January 2013 (IRIN) - The UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR) has expressed concern over reports that more than 70 ethnic Rohingya have been deported to Myanmar from Thailand.

“We continue to request access to this group if they are still on Thai soil,” Vivian Tan, a spokeswoman for the agency, told IRIN on 4 January. “At this point, we simply don’t know.”

Her comments follow media reports that Thai immigration authorities had deported 73 Rohingya asylum seekers, including at least a dozen children, to Myanmar, after their boat, en route to Malaysia, was intercepted in Thai waters on 1 January.

On 3 January, Human Rights Watch (HRW) called on Thailand to halt its deportation plans and allow UNHCR to handle the case. “The Thai government should scrap its inhumane policy of summarily deporting Rohingya, who have been brutally persecuted in Burma, and honour their right to seek asylum,” said Brad Adams, HRW’s Asia director.