Pope receives life jacket of drowned refugee child

VATICAN CITY: "We are rescuers and we are saving lives in the Aegean Sea:" this is how the NGO Proactiva Open Arms is literally reaching out with arms extended, to save refugees landing on the Greek island of Lesbos.

At Wednesday’s General Audience, Proactiva founder Oscar Camps presented Pope Francis with the life jacket of a 6 year old girl who drowned together with her family as they tried to reach safety on Lesbos.

"I know. I know your story," the Pope said to Oscar Camps, who said he and his non-profit Spanish organization arrived on Lesbos after they saw the horrifying images of “hundreds of children dying along the shore and nobody was doing anything. " "Each boatload of people, has a dramatic tale to tell:" families are separated, orphaned children who lost their parents along the way now find themselves in a strange country, a continent that is not their own, and no one to help them.

Camps said he and other lifeguards were indignant about the tragedy unfolding in nearby Greece. He couldn’t just sit on the couch at home – so, he took 15,000 euros in savings and together with a group of volunteer rescue workers and lifeguards, set off for Lesbos last September.

Since then, the Proactiva team has been on hand to help the some 3,000 people, most fleeing the conflict in Syria, who arrive on the island each day. "There have been days when we’ve reached 8,000 in one day, without forgetting tragedies like that of October 28, 2015 in which more than 300 men and women and drowned," said Laura Lanuza, another Proactiva Open Arms volunteer.

Pope Francis visited the island of Lesbos on 16 April this year. On the flight back to Rome, he confessed to reporters that, for him, it had been a "sad journey" full of grief, having witnessed the plight of the refugees.

"With his visit, Pope Francisco gave us a lesson for everyone," Oscar Camps observed. The Pope brought back to Rome three families of refugees, Camps recalled, “so we are now in the Vatican to thank him, returning the visit and to explain how the situation is developing [on Lesbos].”

The volunteer rescuer said the Pope congratulated the Proactiva team for their work and said they were in his prayers and that the current crisis situation is "no humanitarian crisis,” but a crisis “of humanity".--Vatican Radio

http://www.heraldmalaysia.com

German cops bust people-smuggling ring through Malaysia

German police have arrested 17 suspected members of a people-smuggling ring in raids in the states of North Rhine-Westphalia, Lower Saxony and Baden-Wuerttemberg. ― File pic

Nov 5 ― German police yesterday broke up an international ring of people smugglers whose members used falsified documents to bring foreigners into Germany, mainly by air, for a fee of up to €10,000 (RM46,612) per person.

A police statement said that 17 suspected members of the ring had been arrested in raids in the states of North Rhine-Westphalia, Lower Saxony and Baden-Wuerttemberg.

The ring provided foreign nationals, mostly Syrians and Lebanese, with falsified documents such as residency permits and travel documents.

The smugglers came to the attention of the authorities after several people making their way to Germany through Malaysia on falsified documents were arrested at Kuala Lumpur airport, which was used by the criminal ring as a transit port.

A 10-member Lebanese family travelling to Germany on false documents via Kuala Lumpur was arrested. The family was allowed to continue its journey to Germany on humanitarian grounds after it contacted the UN refugee office and the German embassy in the Malaysian capital.

The main suspect is a 24-year-old man who was arrested in the western city of Essen. Handguns, machetes, swords, laser aimers and passports were found in his possession.

Some 570 law enforcement officials and policemen took part in the operation.

Germany has become the favoured destination for hundreds of thousands of migrants fleeing conflicts and poverty in the Middle East, Africa and Asia. ― Reuters

- See more at: http://www.themalaymailonline.com

Syrian refugees and our hypocrisy

Even as we were being so hospitable to the Bosnians, we were disdaining the persecuted Rohingya, thousands of whom continue to live in deplorable conditions in our backyard, recalls Abdar Rahman Koya.

Not really long ago, when I was a little kid, I used to watch the Indian grass cutter at work in our lawn.

It seemed easy, I thought, and I decided it must be the perfect well-paying job, because every house with a patch of grass would need the service.

Of course, I soon realised that grass cutting is not the most lucrative career in the world.

Nowadays, having learnt about the cost of living the hard way, I sometimes think of that grass cutter. How much did he sacrifice to send his daughter to private college after she was denied a place in the public university?

And such thoughts translate into a hatred for the system, a system which allows so-called positive discrimination and race-based affirmative action.

Similarly, whenever I see someone talk about equality and humanity in some distant place, invoking verses of the Qur’an, the word hypocrisy looms large in my mind.

A case in point is Malaysia’s recent announcement that it would accept 3,000 refugees from war-torn Syria.

That number, of course, is just about 0.4 per cent of the 800,000 Syrian refugees accepted by Germany.

Suddenly there was a litany of praises for Malaysia’s gesture, and suddenly we hear Islamic exhortations about helping the migrants.

You see, there is something similar about the move to help Syrian refugees and some Muslims’ obsession with repeatedly going to Mecca, spending so much money on airfare and accommodation. And that is this: both go to great lengths, literally, to do “good”.

Instead of pointing out the devils in our midst, we travel thousands of miles to ritually stone the symbolic devil on a barren desert.

Instead of spending money to help families who could not afford a good education for their children, we set aside our money every year going on repetitive holidays in the name of religion.

So is the case in the announcement by Najib Razak in New York, on taking in Syrian refugees.

Instead of quietly and unostentatiously helping our dark-skinned brown neighbours, tens of thousands of whom were knocking on our shores with smelly clothes and empty stomachs (before we were shamed into reluctantly rescuing them from the seas), our prime minister grandly announced to the world, from a pulpit in New York, that we would accept a handful of refugees from Syria, promising them jobs, education and housing, things many in our own country, let alone neighbouring ones, would die for.

We are also unclear on the concept.

Instead of doing a Merkel and reaching out to people who desperately cry for help, we did a Mr Boffo and brought the Unclear on the Concept comic series to life, by treating refugees like a meat shop, sifting through them for professionals and semi-skilled, effectively telling those human beings without proper education or skills to stay in Isis-land (or Assad-land, depending on whom we consider the villain).

In short, we have no clue as to what we are doing, because we are always guided by our biases – religious, racial, skin colour even – not by a moral compass to help humanity.

Indeed, the latest offer by Malaysia to show its international responsibility only shows our hypocrisy about the refugee issue and cluelessness about the concept of humanity.

The elephant in the room is too large to ignore, and it comes in the form of this question: why we jumped to help thousands of Syrians when all this while we were practically showing the middle finger to calls to ratify the 1951 Refugee Convention, the pledge to recognise people who flee war and persecution as refugees who must be helped.

Muslim nation

Another point is our government’s assumption that the Syrian refugees would want to resettle in Malaysia. The reality is probably rather different.

The Syrians, despite sharing religious affinities with many Malaysians, may find their lifestyle culturally and environmentally closer to Europe, no matter how Arab some of us pretend to be.

The Syrians are not seeking a Muslim government to shelter them. Heck, a Muslim nation is probably the last place they want to settle in, considering how they have seen their lands being turned into hell by people who use God’s name to do whatever they please. On the contrary, like any human being, they just need to get on with their lives.

Consider, for example, the case with the Bosnian refugees some years back. We went to great lengths to help them. We brought hundreds of them here, placed many of them at the International Islamic University despite them speaking pidgin English and even built an entire village to house them.

Fast forward a decade, you find only a handful of Bosnians still here – most have moved to the West.

Meanwhile, even as we were being so hospitable to the Bosnians, we were disdaining the persecuted Rohingya, thousands of whom continue to live in deplorable conditions in our backyard.

Many of these Rohingyas were bright young children forced to beg on the streets and resort to crime because we refused to recognise the piece of paper they carried stating that they are refugees.

Our hospitality to Bosnians also came at a time when probably hundreds of migrant workers were languishing in squalid conditions at our immigration camps. Something exposed by the late Irene Fernandez, backed by documented evidence, only to find herself later battling for her own freedom.

It is not strange that a government which does not recognise refugees of their own kind, refugees who are culturally more adept to live in this country, are now going all out offering a lifeline to 3,000 refugees from a different land, who probably do not even wish to resettle here.

Because here is a government that has been vocal about the plight of the Palestinians, when what the latter are suffering is echoed by our own hotchpotch concept of licensed apartheid.

Such is our hypocrisy.

We travel half the world to showcase our humanity.

Every year, in some case twice and thrice a year, we splurge a couple of years’ worth of a labourer’s salary to join a sea of humanity circumambulating the House of God.

And then, we talk about justice and punch the Jalan Ampang air on a hot Friday afternoon.

And while all this is going on, some dark-skinned grass cutter’s daughter is hard at work studying for her school exam, not knowing that one day soon, she too will be refused a place at one of our tax payer-funded public universities.

Source: themalaysianinsider.com

Why Myanmar elections are important to Thailand

BANGKOK: — THE NOVEMBER 8 election is not only important for Myanmar but also for Thailand, as political changes in this neighbouring country have always had an impact on this part of the region.

This election is important and crucial because this is the first time in 25 years that Myanmar’s two major rival political parties – the ruling Union Solidarity and Development Party (USDP) and the opposition National League for Democracy (NLD) – will contest against each other.

Electoral competition is good because it will give Myanmar people a choice when it comes to votes, unless history repeats itself and the NLD and its leader Aung San Suu Kyi are once again not handed power if they win.

Suu Kyi was not handed power in 1990 despite winning by a landslide, a move that is seen as a repercussion of the 1988 crackdown on an uprising, that eventually brought on economic difficulties and forced millions of people to leave and seek better lives overseas. Unfortunately though, most of these asylum seekers ended up in Thailand’s refugee camps as well as factories, construction sites, fishing trawlers and other places in the Kingdom.

The 2010 election, which the NLD was prohibited from, put President Thein Sein in power and made the military-backed USDP the ruling party. Thein Sein, however, has introduced many reforms and worked on developing the political system by allowing the NLD to participate in the 2012 by-election. Now, the much-loved Nobel laureate Suu Kyi has some space in the field of politics and is able to play a role. Myanmar is also relaxing some of its laws, and many dissidents are able to return home.

However, Thein Sein has either intentionally or unintentionally not completed his reform task and might just be leaving behind a lot of time bombs to explode after the polls. Myanmar’s 2008 Constitution still prohibits people who are married to a foreigner, like Suu Kyi, to lead the country, and the military will still maintain a 25-per-cent quota in parliament.

So, what happens if the NLD wins, but the USDP insists on allying with the military and other minor parties to form the government? There is a high possibility that the NLD will defeat the USDP, but it will still have less than half the total seats in parliament required to form a government – though the two sides may come up with a deal to solve this problem.

Then there’s the peace process. Thein Sein still hasn’t completed that job, as only eight out of the initially announced 15 armed ethnic groups agreed to sign the nationwide ceasefire agreement on October 15. This means armed conflict is still continuing in many areas, notably along the border with Thailand.

People in war-torn areas will have little or no chance to cast their ballots on November 8 due to security issues. It is still unclear when the remaining groups will agree to a truce so people in conflict-ridden areas have a chance to participate in politics.

Peace in Myanmar is really important for Thailand, as hundreds of thousands of people have been waiting in border camps for more than two decades. Previous Thai governments had sent many signals to Nay Pyi Taw, seeking to settle the problem with refugees, but there has been no sign of readiness.

Unless the new election brings political stability and peace to Myanmar, the ethnic groups will keep fighting, and people will keep leaving to seek asylum elsewhere. The Myanmar-Thai borders will never be clear and safe, while economic development, special economic zone, Asean connectivity and many other projects between the two countries will never become a reality.

Source: http://www.nationmultimedia.com

Refugees watch election with interest, trepidation

Outside of Nai Soi village in northern Thailand, more than 14,000 refugees from Kayah State debate elections going on just across the border. While there will be no voting for those in Thailand’s largest refugee camp – most lack ID cards – that doesn’t mean they don’t have opinions about the coming polls.

Young Karenni walk in through a refugee camp near Nai Soi village in Thailand. Photo: Carole Oudot / The Myanmar Times

People started settling in the Ban Mai Nai Soi refugee camp in 1992 and it was officially opened in 1996, according to the Karenni Refugee Committee. Most of the camp residents fled Kayah State due to clashes between the Tatmadaw and ethnic armed groups fighting for independence. The Karenni National Progressive Party signed its second ceasefire agreement with the government in 2012. The first, signed in 1994, collapsed after less than three months.

“I was born in Shadaw township and I came to the camp with my family 20 years ago,” said Ko Su Reh, 22, “The fighting between the Burmese and the Karenni armies forced us to move from place to place.”

His story is common among the refugees, who were uprooted, often multiple times, due to intense conflict. Many of the younger refugees have spent their whole life at the camp, knowing only a 5-kilometre perimeter around Nai Soi.

Trusting the Myanmar government doesn’t come naturally here. The refugees expect and hope that the ruling party will be defeated in the polls by the National League for Democracy, but they don’t anticipate their troubles will be over after an opposition victory.

Most fear that if NLD wins and the political situation in Myanmar is stable, their camp will be shuttered, and they will be forced back into a country they associate with violence and hardship.

“I think if the NLD wins, good changes will come, but it will take a long time before they have consequences in Kayah State,” said Ko Than Tun Oo, 20, who joined the refugee camp in 2011.

He added that before the refugees are funnelled back into Kayah State, they want to see a plan to ensure their well-being and livelihoods agreed to by the local administration. Most of all, Ko Than Tun Oo said, they demand a national ceasefire and genuine peace to be in place before they are repatriated.

“In July, the UNHCR presented their resettlement operation plan, but we think it is too soon [to return],” said Ko Luiz Martin, secretary of the KRC. “A lot of people panicked. The Thai government said the refugees will not be forced to leave, but that within two years, we will have to be gone. U Aung Min from the Myanmar Peace Center also said Myanmar was ready to welcome back the refugees.”

But as clashes continue to flare in Myanmar, the credibility of the ceasefire agreement, which will not be signed by all armed ethnic groups, remains in doubt. Given the fleeting agreements made in the past, many of the residents do not store much faith in the latest peace deal.

Returning is also difficult to conceptualise for those who no longer have a home to go back to.

“In the camp, it’s hard – everyone is struggling for survival. But what will we do if we go back?” said Ko Anthony, 30. He fled Myanmar in 2010, afraid to be arrested after campaigning against the 2008 constitutional referendum. Fear of political persecution upon being repatriated is also common among the refugees.

“Most of the refugees are accused of having connections with armed groups branded as unlawful. They fear they could be arrested if they go back home. Since most of the people here come from eastern Kayah State, devastated by the civil war, their villages don’t exist anymore. There are still landmines and the threat of land-grabs,” said Ko Luiz Martin.

Increasingly, however, Thailand appears to be playing a resentful host. In 2005, Thailand stopped officially registering and admitting new refugees to the camps. While waves of unofficial entries have continued, the newer arrivals have no status, no identification, and cannot officially seek asylum or apply for resettlement. They also cannot obtain official employment, and without the protection of any recognised status are vulnerable to exploitation.

“We feel like birds trapped in a cage,” said Ko Neh Reh. “A lot of young people, fed up with their limbo situation, dropped out from school. Violence and alcohol abuse are increasing in the camp.”

Meanwhile, living standards deteriorate every year. The food rations provided by supporting NGOs are never enough to match the rising refugee population and donor interest has waned. This month, the refugees will only get 9 kilograms (20 pounds) of rice per person, compared to the 20kg a head provided in the 1990s.

“Rations have declined because of donors’ change of interest. Since 2012, their new strategy is to focus on the development inside Myanmar. The camp is growing, but increasingly, it is forgotten,” said Ko Luiz Martin.

He added that to supplement their food, around 15 percent of the refugees work illegally in the nearby Thai farms. If they are caught by immigration officials, they could be deported and charged for illegal entry. At least for now, Thai authorities have mostly appeared willing to look the other way, but no one knows how long that leniency will continue, and whether the results of the elections will end it.

Myanmar migrants in M’sia tell their stories

By EngageMedia

Fleeing from prolonged conflict and persecution in Myanmar, hundreds of thousands of ethnic minorities find themselves living as refugees in neighbouring countries in Southeast Asia. In Malaysia alone, there are an estimated 150,000 refugees from Myanmar, with possibly a third of them not registered with the United Nations Refugee Agency (UNHCR).

In 2013, to highlight their stories and those of other migrant communities, EngageMedia began collaborating with Citizen Journalists Malaysia (CJMY) on Crossroads, an advocacy video project to teach migrant rights activists video production and distribution skills.

‘In Search of Shelter’ is part of the collection of 12 videos that were produced, and highlights the plight of the Myanmar refugee community in Malaysia.

In the video, asylum seekers share how they have united and combined resources to establish access to basic services like health clinics and primary schools for their children. However, they also face many hurdles related to the difficulties in getting registered as refugees with the United Nations High Commissioner of Refugees (UNHCR) in Malaysia, such as how many of the teachers in the schools they set up are themselves arrested by the police due to their lack of legal status.

Malaysia, which has stated that it will not sign the United Nations convention on refugees, also does not have any legal framework for national asylum and does not distinguish between refugees and undocumented migrants, leaving refugees at constant risk of detention, deportation and abuse. An undercover investigation by Al-Jazeera in 2014 revealed that some refugees pay up to $1,000 for official refugee status in Malaysia, as part of an illegal trade allegedly involving the UN Refugee Agency itself.

At one of the community screenings of Crossroads we held in Malaysia, we found that 80 to 90 per cent of those present have had personal experiences of being harassed by the police or faced problems with permits and employers. One member of the audience pointed out that there had been incidences where even if they produced their registered refugee card or supporting letter, the document was simply torn up by the authorities that had approached them.

With continued reports of acts of injustice and exploitation committed against refugees in Malaysia, it remains to be seen how its government and the UNCHR will effectively address this grave and growing situation.

EngageMedia

With a firm belief in freedom of expression and without prejudice, FMT tries its best to share reliable content from third parties. Such articles are strictly the writer’s personal opinion. FMT does not necessarily endorse the views or opinions given by any third party content provider.

Chin: Refugees Face Return Dilemma

Chin refugees in India face a dilemma whether they should go back to Burma, where their lands have been confiscated by the military and there is a possibility of revived persecutions, or stay in India as refugees, living a life of severe poverty and marginalization.
Below is a press release published by The Irrawaddy:

Expatriate refugees from the poverty-stricken nation of Burma have begun filtering back, partly as their country of origin has democratized and more ominously because they are feeling the heat from host countries like Thailand, India, Bangladesh and Malaysia to leave.

But so far, the Chin, an impoverished Christian minority that has been likened to the persecuted Rohingya, who have been set upon by majority Buddhists unmercifully, have yet to join the exodus. About 100,000 thousand of them are just across the border in India’s Mizoram State, where they fled in the wake of 1998 riots. Chin State, on the country’s southwestern flank, is one of Burma’s poorest. Nearly 75 percent of its 500,000 population live mired in poverty, deprived of support from the successive Burmese regimes in Rangoon or the new administrative capital of Naypyidaw.

Initially the refugees were either political activists or student leaders who were targeted by the then military rulers. But even with a quasi-democratic regime in Naypyidaw, the influx to India continues, with people entering India not to escape dictators or authority, but for a better life.

In some cases the Burmese Army may have already confiscated their lands and destroyed their properties. Finding difficulties in surviving inside India as well, the Burmese refugees are now seeking resettlement to a third country.

The majority of the Chin complain about discrimination from the Buddhist-dominated federal government. The 1988 movement against the then military rulers of Burma was crushed, leaving thousands dead across the country.

“Like other ethnic communities in Myanmar, the Chin people bore the brunt of severe poverty and military rule, prompting many to flee across the 1,463-km border into India’s Mizoram State,” according to a 2011 report by Physicians for Human Rights.

The refugees feel somewhat comfortable in Mizoram as it is one of the India’s few Christian-dominated states. The Chin and Mizo people, share ancestry, physical appearance, food habits and language accents. In some occasions, the highly influential churches also play an important role in propagating the sense of brotherhood between the two communities. Nonetheless, asylum seekers often face the problem of finding livelihoods. Mostly they work as cheap daily wage earners in construction sites, agriculture fields, market areas and also in local Mizo households.

“Our people frequently face rights violations here [Mizoram] even though they are reluctant to go back to their native places in Burma. We are actually afraid the situation in Chin State is yet to be favorable us,” said Pu Win, a Chin activist based in the frontier town of Saiha in Mizoram. The activist added that the Chin are worried about medical care and education for their children. So ignoring the troubles in Mizoram, most of the Chin refugees prefer to stay in India until their country develops a little more, he added.

Unlike those in Mizoram, Burmese asylum seekers in Delhi face more trouble as they are physically different, as is their culture, religion and language. As they are not comfortable in Hindi, the primary language, the refugees find it extremely difficult to communicate with their short-time employers and authorities.

India’s national capital gives shelter to over 8,000 registered Burmese refugees, but New Delhi is also home to another 10,000 asylum seekers, half of them women and children who have to travel over 2,200 kms from Mizoram to Delhi to enroll with the office of United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR).

India, which supports a few hundred thousand refugees from Tibet, Burma, Sri Lanka etc., has yet to adopt a specific refugee protection policy, resulting in persistent confusion about the refugees and their legitimate rights. Moreover, India is not a signatory to the 1951 UN refugee convention or a 1967 refugee status protocol.

“As there is no procedural mechanism for protecting the refugees in India, the Burmese refugee women have to struggle for their basic necessities such as food, clothing and shelter in New Delhi,” said M. Kim, a Burmese exile based in New Delhi. “In addition to this, they battle with the constant fear of sexual assault and physical abuse.”

Quoting a report titled Doke Kha Bon with the accounts of 20 Chin women refugees in New Delhi, which was sponsored by the Burma Center Delhi and released recently, Kim asserted that the capital city remains universally unsafe for asylum seekers.

According to the UNHCR office in New Delhi, persecution due to minority ethnic race, religion and political opinion are cited as the main reasons for their seeking asylum in neighboring countries. “The most frequent complaints reported to UNHCR include difficulty in communicating with local health and education service providers,” said the BCD-sponsored report.

Prepared by the Pann Nu Foundation, the report includes case studies relating to Chin refugee women now living in west Delhi.

“Those women, many of them widows and single mothers, have bared their hearts during the interaction. In fact, every woman has a pathetic story to tell. Originally hailing from some remote areas of Chin, the refugee families were once dependent on Jhum [shifting] cultivation. But due to land confiscation practices adopted by the Burmese Army, the Chin villagers gradually lost their livelihood and left for India,” said Alana Golmei, founder and president of the Pann Nu Foundation.

Often the women and girls were compelled to serve the Burmese military as porters and laborers, made to serve food, and camp in the jungle with no proper shelter, without even knowing when they could return home.

“Needless to say, they all lack proper education. The interviewees can only read and write in their local Chin dialect. All these women, who are Christians, had no respite from the Buddhist dominated military personnel, who even barge into their houses and demand food time to time,” Golmei said. “They said the continued sexual assault by the Burmese soldiers is their worst nightmare there.”

But their lives in New Delhi are turning into another nightmare.

“They allege that they become victims of physical abuse, molestation, sexual assault and discrimination everywhere they go, be it at their rented apartments, workplaces, public spaces or even the roads for that matter,” Golmei said, adding that they keep mum about sexual assaults due to the fear of social stigmatization and shame.

Now voices have been raised for reviewing the existing foreign policy of the Indian government, taking into consideration the Burmese refugee women and children in the country. Understanding that the refugee women are more vulnerable and are easy targets, the activists appealed to New Delhi to continue supporting the asylum seekers.

“The new difficulty for the Burmese refugees has started with the news of democratization of Burma. Now most conscious people of India argue that the refugees should leave the country, as India has enough problems to deal with,” said Dr. Tint Swe, a physician and an exile in India for decades.

Tint Swe however admitted that Indian people in general remain merciful. Of course they are lately starting to believe that if Burma becomes comfortable and safer, they should leave.

“But the question arises here if the changes in Burma have prepared the ground for returning the refugees. In reality it has not. So we have urged the Indian government to review its existing foreign policy with an aim to continue safeguarding the refugees here for some more years,” he added.

Following the call from Burma President Thein Sein’s government to exiles taking shelter in different countries to return, many refugee families have already responded and have left India. Others, however, remain apprehensive about their future. In some cases it is understood that the Burmese Army might have already confiscated their lands and destroyed their properties. Finding difficulties in surviving inside India as well, the Burmese refugees are now seeking resettlement in a third country for a dignified life. -

68,000 undocumented migrants detained in 10 detention depots nationwide as at 6/1/2014?

Govt urged to overcome shortage of legal workers before roping in illegals

 By Alyaa Alhadjri

PETALING JAYA: The Master Builders Association of Malaysia (MBAM) wants the government to address issues surrounding limited supply of legal workers before embarking on yet another crackdown against undocumented migrants in the country.

MBAM president Matthew Tee told theantdaily that while the association did not condone the practice of hiring undocumented migrants to work in construction sites, there were often “not enough” legal workers available to complete a project within a stipulated deadline.

“The government should understand the reasons behind the high demands for illegal workers.

“MBAM has consistently requested for the workers’ recruitment process to be simplified as delays would ultimately affect implementation of an ongoing (construction) project,” Tee said.

He was responding to the Home Ministry’s large-scale operation against undocumented migrants beginning Jan 21, after the end of a “grace period” given to both workers and their employers.

Tee also noted that the process to hire a legal foreign worker could take up to eight months, involving dealings with multiple government ministries and agencies fraught with red-tape.

“There was a time in the 90s when the government issued MBAM with a one-off quota system to bring in foreign workers in light of a similar crackdown on undocumented migrants. Some of the construction sites (at the time) were grounded,” Tee recalled.

However, in a Bernama report on Aug 5 last year Immigration director-general Datuk Alias Ahmad was quoted as saying that the lead time to process visas and permits for foreign workers in the construction industry is 14 days and not eight months as claimed by MBAM.

Tee also urged the authorities to provide clear guidelines on future raids at construction sites as MBAM members, representing almost 90% of construction companies listed on Bursa Malaysia, were “seriously affected” in the past.

“Whenever there is news of raids, most of the workers, whether legal or illegal, will flee the work sites to avoid arrest.

“It is our (MBAM) understanding that all the workers, including the legal ones, will be detained unless they can prove that they have proper documentation,” Tee said, addingthere were instances where legitimate immigration papers of foreign workers were not accepted by enforcement personnel due to lack of coordination between the agencies concerned.

Tee said it was “common procedure” for employers to keep their workers' documents in the office instead of taking them to the construction sites.

“MBAM urges the authorities to be consistent in their procedure when conducting such raids. Don't just take our workers away,” he stressed.

Home Minister Datuk Seri Ahmad Zahid Hamidi had also reportedly said all 2.3 million foreign workers in 10 recognised sectors were required to apply for the new I-Kad identification document by the end of this year.

Zahid said the colour-coded I-Kad, which will cost a worker or his employer RM110, will be fitted with high-tech security features such as biometric fingerprint and Nexcode mobile data security. It will be issued in stages according to sectors.

Tee, in response to Zahid, urged the government to consider charging lower fees for the I-Kad as employers were already paying levies and other processing fees.

“As we all know, the construction industry can be quite labour-intensive, which means that if an employer employs 1,000 foreign workers, he has to pay an additional RM110,000 for these I- cards,” Tee said.

Meanwhile, the crackdown is also expected to once again highlight various human rights issues pertaining to the government’s treatment of undocumented migrants.

These issues include overcrowding and poor facilities in detention depots, Malaysia’s non-recognition of refugee status, high-handed action by the authorities involved in raids as well as a perceived bias towards protecting the interests of third-party agents involved in the recruitment process.

Deputy Home Minister Datuk Wan Junaidi Tuanku Jaafar had on Jan 6 reportedly said there weresome 68,000 undocumented migrants detained in 10 detention depots nationwide at a daily cost of RM35 per person for food and administrative matters.

This translates to a total cost of RM2.38 million a day, RM71.4 million a month and an average of RM8.56 billion a year, notwithstanding medical expenses which Wan Junaidi said could raise the cost to RM75 per person. - The Ant Daily, 21/1/2014, Govt urged to overcome shortage of legal workers before roping in illegals

Posted by Charles Hector

Love Modesto: Volunteers help Burma refugees plant veggie garden

By Rosalio Ahumada
rahumada@modbee.com

 

MODESTO -- Volunteers on Saturday chose to show some love to a group of refugees from Burma, welcoming these newcomers with help in their vegetable garden and producing much more than fresh ingredients for their traditional meals.
"It just shows the love of the community," said Pam Scholl, one of the volunteers. "When people come together to help them it really makes them feel that they now have a village here."
The garden work was one of about 60 projects created by Love Modesto, an all-volunteer effort to improve the community. About 2,500 people participated in neighborhood cleanups, community outreach and public service efforts.

The projects ranged from creating a long-jump pit for the upcoming Special Olympics to cleanup efforts at various schools throughout the city. The events began with a downtown rally in the morning before volunteers were sent to neighborhoods.
The Modesto volunteers were part of a larger contingent of more than 6,500 who signed up for 450 projects in cities throughout the Central Valley.
In Ceres, a crew of three volunteers repaired a porch for an elderly woman who had fallen through it when the worn out wood broke. Alex Magana of Hughson, Troy Slaybaugh of Ceres and David Thompson of Ripon strengthened the porch's stairs at Las Casitas Mobile Home Park.
The volunteers in Modesto spent Saturday building a foundation for a new life for the refugees from Burma. Pam and Jeff Scholl of Modesto helped lead the group of volunteers who planted winter vegetables.

Strong work ethic

The Scholls spent three months in Burma and Thailand this year and grew to love the people of the Southeast Asian country. They discovered people there have a strong work ethic. When the couple learned earlier this year that refugees from Burma had arrived in Modesto, they decided to reach out to them.
"Even though they came here with very little, they have enormous hearts," Pam Scholl said.
The refugees have two plots in a community garden behind the Church of the Cross in north Modesto.
Gin Khual, who came to this country with his wife and three sons, is the primary gardener, but he recently had surgery.
So the volunteers helped Khual plant cabbage, bok choy, cauliflower, broccoli, onions, sweet peas and other winter vegetables.
Scholl said the vegetables will help the refugee families prepare their meals without overspending on their food budget. They're also not used to canned vegetables, she said, so the fresh produce is just what they need.
"This enables these families to plant the vegetables they love," Pam Scholl said. "It makes this community feel like home to them."
Bee staff writer Rosalio Ahumada can be reached at rahumada@modbee.com or (209) 578-2394.

Read more here: http://www.modbee.com/2012/09/29/2394466/love-for-modesto-volunteers-help.html#storylink=cpy

Read more here: http://www.modbee.com/2012/09/29/2394466/love-for-modesto-volunteers-help.html#storylink=cpy

 

 

Burmese ethnic delegation leaders travel to US

A joint delegation of the ethnic United Nationalities Federal Council (UNFC) and the National Council of the Union of Burma (NCUB) has arrived in the US to talk about Burma's ethnic peace processes with US and UN officials.

David Thackarbaw, the delegation’s leader

The delegation will meet with Burma’s ethnic communities and UN and US officials, among others, to support sustainable peace for Burma’s ethnic nationalities, said the group's leaders.

David Thackarbaw, the delegation’s leader, said, “Until and unless the Burmese military actually ceases its attacks against the ethnics, ‘stability’ and ‘reconciliation’ in Burma will not be possible," in a statement released on Thursday.

“We are ready for more dialogue with all the stakeholders of Burma,” he said. “We believe that having international community involvement will help pave the way to national reconciliation.”

Khun Okker of the UNFC said that a unified political and democratic dialogue is a must following the signing of a series of individual cease-fire agreements between ethnic resistance groups and the Burmese government.

In the midst of Burmese military offensives and widespread human rights abuses in Kachin and Shan states, the joint-delegation is advocating an “ethnics’ benchmark.”

Recently, both the UNFC and the NCUB called for Burma’s political situation to be resolved before 2015 in a “Benchmarks for Renewed Engagement with Burma” statement.

Ethnic leaders said they seek a genuine dialogue for reconciliation and a political solution, but without the engagement and support of both the Burmese government and the National Defense Security Council, they do not believe that durable peace will be possible.

“We would of course like to resolve Burma’s political issues within a time frame because we have all suffered enough decades of civil war. However, we are also prepared and will continue to defend our people until peace, national reconciliation, and federalism are achieved in Burma,” the statement said.

Suu Kyi tells Burmese in US to look back to home country, voices cautious optimism for Myanmar

By Associated Press, Published: September 25

FORT WAYNE, Ind. — Myo Myint lost most of his right arm and right leg and several fingers fighting for the Burma army before he began working against Myanmar’s military rulers and became a political prisoner.

The 49-year-old political refugee would like to return to his homeland one day, but he doesn’t believe it will happen, even after hearing Myanmar opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi say she would work to make sure people like him could come back.

Myint was among thousands of elated supporters who greeted Suu Kyi with cheers, tears and a standing ovation Tuesday as she took to the stage at the Allen County War Memorial Coliseum in Fort Wayne, Ind., the fourth stop on her 17-day U.S. tour.
Like Suu Kyi, Myint was imprisoned in 1989. But Myint, who spent 15 years as a political prisoner, said he doesn’t believe Suu Kyi will be able to help him go back to Myanmar. That’s because he says he’s too well-known for working against the junta, having been featured in an HBO documentary called “Burma Soldier.”
“She cannot do anything. She is not in the power,” he said.

Sixty-seven-year-old Suu Kyi, who was recently elected to parliament after spending 15 years under house arrest for opposing Myanmar’s military rulers, voiced optimism for democracy in her Southeast Asian home.
“The important thing is to learn how to resolve problems. How to face them and how to find the right answers through discussion and debate,” the Nobel Laureate told the more than 5,000 people who gathered to hear her speak. Fort Wayne is home to one of the largest Burmese communities in the United States.
Myint said he lost his arm and leg in a battle with communist insurgents while serving in the Burma army. After he left the army, he switched sides, meeting with resistance groups and working against the military rulers.

“We were looking together to find a way to end the civil war,” he said.
Suu Kyi rose to prominence during a failed pro-democracy uprising to protest Burma’s military-backed regime in 1988. Thousands of the 1988 protesters were killed and tens of thousands more — including Oxford-educated Suu Kyi — spent years as political prisoners. Suu Kyi’s National League for Democracy party was subsequently stymied by the junta’s iron grip on the country.

But Suu Kyi voiced cautious hope Tuesday.

“The differences and problems we have amongst ourselves, I think we can join hands and reconcile and move forward and solve any problems,” she said. Suu Kyi delivered most of her speech — and answered most questions — in Burmese, with an English translation by video.
Since 1991, when a single Burmese refugee resettled in Fort Wayne — about two hours north of Indianapolis and 8,000 miles from Myanmar — thousands more have followed, many of them relocating under a federal program after years in refugee camps in Thailand.
After his imprisonment, Myint spent three years in Thailand before applying to become a political refugee. A brother who had fought against the Burma military rulers in 1988 already lived to Fort Wayne.
Both were excited to attend Suu Kyi’s speech Tuesday. Though Myint doesn’t believe he will ever be able to return, he was pleased to hear her say she would work to clear the way for the return of those who left.

“I would love to go back but I have no chance,” he said.
For some Burmese residents, Suu Kyi’s visit was the first tangible connection with the homeland they hope to one day return.
“I would appreciate and be very grateful if you could look back to your home country, which is Burma,” she said.

Myanmar’s half century of military rule invited crippling international sanctions. But President Thein Sein, who is visiting New York this week, has introduced political and economic reforms in recent years, and the U.S. is considering easing the main plank of its remaining sanctions, a ban on imports.
Suu Kyi, who already has met with President Barack Obama and received Congress’ highest honor, said the sanctions were effective in pushing the junta to reform but that “they should now be lifted” so Myanmar can rebuild its economy.
“We cannot only depend on external support and support of our friends from other nations. We should also depend on ourselves to reach this goal,” she said.

Side by side, opening doors

LOWELL -- Kler Htoo's race to success begins when the burning afternoon sun hits Cross Street.
The French doors to a corner room in the Cambodian Mutual Assistance Center, where local Burmese students and their tutors meet three times a week, open at 4 p.m. Htoo always arrives by 3:30.
When arriving in the U.S. in 2010 from a Burmese refugee camp in Thailand, he barely finished second grade because he kept failing his classes, said Kler, a Lowell High School freshman. Some people at the camp had tried to teach him.
"Not too much help," Kler said.
It's hard to catch up with his classmates now. He sometimes has difficulty memorizing math formulas, said his tutor, James Thawnghmung. But Kler isn't giving up.

James Thawnghmung works with Lowell High freshman Kler Htoo, 14. More tutors are needed. SUN / JULIA MALAKIE

Farther back in the room, Lowell High sophomore Nawnaw Paw often keeps her nose buried in a book. She remembers her first day of school four years ago, when her teacher took her by the arm to let her know she needed to move to a different classroom. She did know that the school bell, which she had never heard in a Burmese refugee camp, signaled time to switch classes.
The fast-talking teenager no longer needs hand signals to communicate with her classmates. Some English sentences in textbooks are still confusing to her, but she knows she can always ask a tutor who speaks her language.
"School cannot afford to teach one on one," Thawnghmung said.
And giving the students much-needed undivided attention to help them

---

The Burmese free tutoring program that a group of local immigrants launched in January continues to grow. It started out with one student who needed help and with Thawnghmung's wife, Ardeth, serving as the tutor. On the first day of school this month, 35 students showed up while only two volunteer tutors were in the room. Ardeth Thawnghmung, an associate professor of political science at UMass Lowell, has managed to recruit some additional tutors since then,

Lee Say and her husband, Leep Ber, of Lowell have their son come to the after-school tutoring program. Say, who taught in their refugee camp in Thailand, is volunteering herself. SUN / JULIA MALAKIE

Sun staff photos can be ordered by visiting our MyCapture site.

including a Burmese immigrant who is pursuing a master's degree in education at a college in Boston. But the program could use more help. The students are mostly in middle school. Burmese refugees began arriving in Lowell from refugee camps in Thailand in 2007 after decades of civil war in their homeland. Some of them have left Lowell for other refugee destinations, such as Texas, where the cost of living is lower, Ardeth Thawnghmung said.
The Burmese population in Lowell now stands at about 200, and nearly half of them are children under age 18, according to James Si Si Aung of Lowell. Aung, who works for the state Department of Public Health's refugee and immigrant-health program, volunteers many hours providing assistance to

LIFTING UP, ONE ON ONE: Ardeth Thawnghmung, left, who started the tutoring program for local Burmese, holds her son, Vaal, 6, at the Lowell center Wednesday. She's joined by her husband, James, who is working with Kler Htoo, right, a Lowell High freshman. Htoo only went to school in Burma up to the second grade. SUN / JULIA MALAKIE

fellow Burmese refugees with various needs from making doctors appointments to filling out legal documents. Some students bring their younger siblings to the tutoring program, Ardeth Thawnghmung said. On a recent Wednesday afternoon, a fourth-grader and her kindergartner brother quietly read books by their older friends. The books are written in English, and the young ones speak the language nearly flawlessly.
But things are much harder for older students. Many have academically fallen far behind their American counterparts while in refugee camps. There are fifth- and sixth-graders who can't do multiplication, Thawnghmung said. They also can't get help from their parents, most of whom never finished second grade.
Lee Say, a mother of an eighth-grader from Lowell, for one, said she only has seventh-grade education and is grateful that her child has access to free tutoring. The students cannot only get help for themselves, but also share knowledge with other Burmese students, Say said through translation by Thawnghmung.
Those who have learning disabilities never obtained the help they needed. Students who have done well in school also must overcome the language handicap and differences in learning styles between the two countries.
"In the United States, you have to do more thinking," rather than simply memorizing books, Nawnaw said.
Nawnaw is now fluent in English, but still has some difficulty understanding textbooks. Memorizing words and phrases also take her twice as long as her American classmates, she said. But that makes her want to work even harder toward her goal, to enroll college and find work that "has to something to do with medical" fields.
All students come to the tutoring program at their own will. Most walk from home. They show up without any incentives, a testament to their desire to succeed, Thawnghmung said.
Thawnghmung, who came to the U.S. in 1990 as a foreign student, and five other leaders of Lowell's Burmese community are also committed to assisting fellow immigrants in any way they can.
"We are considering forming a formal organization so we can be all part of it," Thawnghmung said.
Being together -- "that's what we are all about," she said.
The tutoring program is looking for volunteers. Tutors do not need to speak Burmese, but those who are capable of teaching middle school and high school math are particularly needed. Those interested may contact Thawnghmung at 978-452-6144 or by email at ardeth.thawnghmung@gmail.com.

Nobel Peace Prize winner San Suu Kyi speaks in Louisville

Burmese democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi told an audience at the University of Louisville on Monday that she is “cautiously optimistic” about reforms taking place in the southeast Asian nation as it emerges from decades of rule by a repressive military junta.

The 67-year-old international human-rights figure and Nobel Peace laureate also said she supported the lifting of remaining U.S. sanctions against her country despite still-fledgling democratic change and concerns about human-rights abuses.

“If we take the view that only sanctions will be able to put an end to human rights violations, it is in a sense an abrogation of responsibility” for the nation to police its own problems, said Suu Kyi, who was recently elected to parliament after 15 years under house arrest in Myanmar, formerly called Burma.

She told the audience of refugees, students and supporters that she believed the changes under way would eventually help “build the kind of Burma for which we’ve all dreamed.”

Her appearance in Louisville was part of a landmark 17-day U.S. tour and was arranged by U.S. Sen. Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., one of the ousted military regime’s strongest critics. Last week in Washington, D.C., Suu Kyi received a Congressional Gold Medal in the wake of recent democratic reforms that this year led President Barack Obama to ease an investment ban and send an ambassador to Myanmar for the first time in 22 years.

McConnell introduced Suu Kyi Monday by likening her to Gandhi and Martin Luther King Jr. and said her “quiet resolve” and “luminous heroism” made her the “most unlikely of revolutionaries.”

Kentucky is home to more than 2,400 mostly ethnic Karen refugees from Myanmar who have resettled in the state since 2006, many after spending years in refugee camps in Thailand. Dozens were in attendance Monday, although many more had sought tickets to see the soft-spoken leader they adoringly call “The Lady.”

U of L political science professor Jason Abbott, who directs the university’s Center for Asian Democracy, said “the event was tremendously important to the city and state’s Burmese populations, most of whom come from the country's ethnic minority populations who have been subject to a ceaseless campaign of violence ... for over four decades.”

Aung San Suu Kyi's visit a homecoming for many Burmese refugees who have settled in Indiana

Eight thousand miles separate southeast Asia from the American Midwest, but when Myanmar democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi visits an Indiana city on Tuesday, it will be a kind of homecoming.

Burmese excited for Suu Kyi visit

 Fort Wayne, home to one of the United States' largest Burmese populations, has become an unlikely base for opposition to the country's former military regime.
Here, Suu Kyi's followers meet regularly, criticizing what's happening in their homeland through Voice of America broadcasts and YouTube videos, lobbying Congress for continued economic sanctions and raising money for the opposition in Myanmar, also known as Burma.
"They cannot talk in there, so we talk for them here," said Thiha Ba Kyi, 57, a former dentist who earned an MBA after coming to the U.S. in 1994 and now hosts a weekly Burmese-language talk show on local television. "We are very staunch and very outspoken. ... I believe that's why Suu Kyi come here."
The visit by the 67-year-old Nobel laureate, who spent 15 years under house arrest for opposing military rule, marks the zenith of a two-decade influx of Burmese refugees that has brought a new global awareness to the city of 256,000 people two hours north of Indianapolis.
Since 1991, when a single Burmese refugee resettled here, thousands more have followed, many of them relocating under a federal program after years in refugee camps in Thailand. They join other political refugees from a host of countries who have made the city a second home since the fall of Saigon in 1975, thanks largely to the help of Catholic Charities.
The 2010 census found 3,800 Burmese in Allen County, where Fort Wayne is located, but Fred Gilbert, a retired welfare worker who now runs a website designed to help immigrants adjust to American life, says the number may be actually be a few thousand higher because some Burmese identify themselves by ethnic origin rather than nationality.
Many of those residents plan to turn out when Suu Kyi speaks to a crowd expected to number more than 7,000 Tuesday at Memorial Coliseum. The visit is part of a 17-day trip to the U.S. during which she has met with President Barack Obama and received the Congressional Gold Medal.
Signs welcoming her have shown up throughout the city. Local students gathered recently to make flags depicting the fighting peacock that appears on the flag of Suu Kyi's National League for Democracy party.
"She is the hope for the people," said Ba Kyi, who now works for Anthem Blue Cross and Blue Shield and helps the Burmese opposition in exile. "She can bring democracy again in Burma."
For many of the city's Burmese residents, Suu Kyi's visit will be the first tangible connection in years, even decades, with the homeland some hope to return to one day.
Many, like Ba Kyi, left behind careers when they fled their homeland and learned new skills to get a job. U Tun Oo, who chairs the local welcoming committee for Suu Kyi's visit, was elected to parliament in the 1990 election won by Suu Kyi's party that was nullified by the military regime and served as finance minister for the elected government in exile.
"I'm finance minister in the jungle," he said with a laugh. "Jungle minister."
Now Tun Oo, who was a construction engineer in Asia, works in a Fort Wayne factory. When he's not working, he heads the local branch of Suu Kyi's party.
"We see people who were university professors and members of parliament who are very accomplished who are doing all kinds of work," said Tom Lewandowski, president of the AFL-CIO's are labor council. "They'll do what it takes to get by."
Refugees qualify for federal government assistance, but Meghan Menchhofer, a staffer at the Burmese Advocacy Center, said while many newcomers rely on food stamps, only a handful accept cash welfare. The center, which is funded by federal grants and private donations, helps refugees find jobs and homes and navigate issues from laws and customs to getting a driver's license.
"It was different. Vastly different. I knew very little English," said May Ayar Oo, 26, who came to the U.S. at age 16. She graduated in the top five in her high school class and now works as an engineer while attending graduate school.
Patrick Proctor, a member of the board of directors at the Burmese Advocacy Center, said some people in Fort Wayne harbor a negative stereotype of the Burmese who live there. About two years ago, some of that prejudice came to light when a worker at a coin-operated laundry posted a sign barring Burmese "for sanitary reasons," apparently a reference to some people's habit of spitting out the residue from chewing betel nuts.
But many of the city's Burmese seem to have found their way. Burmese-run businesses have popped up across the city, and both the valedictorian and salutatorian at a local high school this year were Burmese.
Former Buddhist monk Nai Sike, 48, and his wife operate a Burmese grocery, one of several in town.
Sike said he would like to stay in the United States because of his business, but he might go back to visit Myanmar. Like the other Indiana Burmese, he is excited about Suu Kyi's visit.
"It's good she's coming here, because of democracy," he said through a translator.
Those attending Tuesday's speech will be eager to hear Suu Kyi's views on sanctions toward Myanmar. Since her release in 2010, she has joined hands with members of the former ruling junta that detained her to push ahead with political reform. She is under pressure from Myanmar President Thien Sein's government to press the U.S. to remove the restrictions.
Ba Kyi wants to be a part of the change Suu Kyi is expected to bring. He said he wants to teach his people, who have no experience of freedom, what democracy is about.
"I would like to move back," he said. "Hopefully, they'll need educated people who have experience in a democratic country."

Suu Kyi, Clinton Discuss Refugees

2012-09-18

The Burmese opposition leader begins her US visit with a meeting with the top American diplomat.

RFA

Aung San Suu Kyi (l) speaks with U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton (r) at the State Department in Washington, Sept. 18, 2012.

Burma's opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi opened her visit to the United States with talks Tuesday with U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton on the welfare of Burmese refugees in America.

The 67-year-old Nobel laureate, who arrived on Monday for a nearly three-week visit, met with Clinton at her office in the State Department.

The top U.S. diplomat briefly spoke to Aung San Suu Kyi on the resettlement of Burmese refugees in the United States and the visitor's trip next week to Fort Wayne in Indiana state, home to a large number of Burmese.

There is "so much excitement and enthusiasm about the fact that you can actually come," Clinton told Aung San Suu Kyi, according to journalists and photographers who were allowed a couple of minutes to witness their meeting before they went into closed talks.

Aung San Suu Kyi said she had heard about Fort Wayne while tracking Burmese news when she was under house arrest for nearly two decades during the rule of the previous military junta.

Since 2006, about 55,000 Burmese refugees, most whom were living in Thailand, have been resettled in the United States. Many of them had fled nearly five decades of harsh military rule and fighting between government military troops and armed ethnic groups. 

Aung San Suu Kyi will take part later Tuesday in a Washington forum organized by the Asia Society on the ongoing transition in Burma and the challenges facing the country. Clinton will make introductory remarks at the event.

Landmark trip

Clinton made a landmark trip to Burma nine months ago in the first visit by a U.S. secretary of state in more than 50 years to begin reconciliation with the nominally civilian government of President Thein Sein who took over in March last year.

The two countries then named ambassadors to each other's capitals, formalizing diplomatic relations for the first time since Washington withdrew its ambassador in 1990.

The United States also eased investment and financial restrictions to reciprocate nascent reforms in Burma but said it will maintain an import ban amid continuing human rights and ethnic conflict concerns.

The Obama administration is believed to be considering easing a ban on imports from Burma into the U.S., one of the main remaining sanctions imposed on the country. The U.S. Congress last month renewed the ban for another year.

Aung San Suu Kyi may also meet President Barack Obama during her trip, which is her first to the U.S. in 40 years.

The White House has yet to announce whether she will meet Obama but sources say he could hold talks with her despite his hectic re-election campaign.

Just before Aung san Suu Kyi landed at the Dulles airport in Washington Monday, Thein Sein ordered the release of another 514 prisoners, including dozens of political detainees, in an apparent bid to pave the way for the U.S. to further ease sanctions ahead of his trip to attend the U.N. meeting.

Aung San Suu Kyi is also scheduled to attend a high-level meeting organized by U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki Moon, a day before Thein Sein addresses the General Assembly, reports have said.

Reported by RFA's Burmese service. Written in English by Chris Billing and Parameswaran Ponnudurai.