Rohingyas ‘using fake passports to reach KSA’

DHAKA: MD RASOOLDEEN

Monday 15 April 2013

• File photo of Rohingyas from Myanmar gathering after jumping off their boat, and swimming to shore on Langkawi Island, in the northern part of Malaysia's peninsula. (Reuters)
  

 

 

 

 

 

Some of the Muslim Rohingya refugees in Bangladesh come to the Kingdom for employment with fake Bangladeshi passports, a senior Dhaka government official claimed.
Information Minister Hasanul Haq Inu told a group of visiting foreign journalists here that some of these refugees, who were trained in militancy, have been sent to countries such as the UK, India and to some Middle Eastern countries such as Dubai and Saudi Arabia for various purposes.
According to the official, these refugees were arrested in those countries for committing various crimes. Subsequently, it was found that they were Muslim Rohingyas, who had crossed the Bangladesh-Myanmar border in the south of the country.
The minister alleged that these refugees have doctored the passports with the help of the NGOs that were working for the Muslim Rohingya camp in Bangladesh. He said that these NGOs have some links with local political parties dedicated to terror.
He said Bangladesh is home to more than 2,000 NGOs, and added that his government is greatly concerned about the issue that brings disrepute to his country.
“Muslim Rohingyas could be easily differentiated from Bangladeshis by their language since they cannot speak Bengali,” Inu said, pointing out they can only speak Rohingya and Myanmar languages. He said that the upkeep of the refugees in the camp is partly funded by the UNHCR and maintaining them is going to be a huge financial burden on the state. With the new government in power in Myanmar, Bangladesh plans to take up the issue of sending them back home.
Arab News learned that the recent Saudi delegation that visited Dhaka, had expressed concerns over the fake Bangladesh passports found among Rohingya refugees and their misdoings in the Kingdom.
Last month, the Bangladesh government urged the international community to work closely with Dhaka to assist in the process of repatriation of Myanmar refugees in the country.
The government said repatriation of Myanmar refugees was important to prevent transnational crimes including human trafficking, illicit drugs and arms trafficking as well as religious extremism along Bangladesh-Myanmar border.

Source : http://www.arabnews.com/news/448201

Refugee officials set to visit city UN, State seek info on resettlement

Brian Francisco | Washington editor

FORT WAYNE – Officials for the U.S. State Department and the United Nations will visit Fort Wayne this week to learn more about refugee resettlement efforts.

Larry Bartlett, director of refugee admissions for State, and Shelly Pitterman, regional director of the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees, plan to meet Thursday with those described by Bartlett as “stakeholders” – resettlement agencies, service providers, advocates, Mayor Tom Henry and refugees themselves.

“We try to go to communities on a regular basis to really try to understand where the nuances are, how communities are coping and how we might, if we can, adjust some of the programs,” Bartlett said from his Washington, D.C., office in a telephone interview last week.

The last time a State Department official came to Fort Wayne to evaluate refugee resettlement services was in 2009. Bartlett also will visit refugee communities in Indianapolis and Detroit next week.

“Part of the responsibility we have is not just to see how our programs are faring but to see how the community is supporting refugees, to see where there are issues, challenges, weaknesses in the programs that we can be helpful with,” Bartlett said.

“We really do see this as a partnership with the community,” he said.

Catholic Charities of the Fort Wayne-South Bend Diocese has helped people exiled by political, religious and ethnic persecution – in Bosnia, Vietnam, Iraq, Somalia and many other nations – to resettle in northeastern and north-central Indiana. By far the most resettlements are the more than 2,700 Burmese refugees who have arrived in Allen County since 1993 after fleeing oppressive military rule in the Southeastern Asian nation of Myanmar, formerly known as Burma.

Refugees “aren’t coming to America as an economic opportunity or as a migration opportunity,” Bartlett said.

“Refugees are coming here because they can’t go home. Our country’s government and our communities have all kind of assumed responsibility to help those people. We offered them an opportunity to rebuild their lives, to become citizens, to become permanent residents of this country.”

Minn Myint Nan Tin, executive director of Fort Wayne’s Burmese Advocacy Center, said she wants Bartlett and Pitterman to “see the people, talk to them, listen to them and what they have to say.”

She said the Burmese community’s biggest challenges include a shortage of good jobs for adults, a lack of higher-education options for teenagers and a prevalence of diabetes and heart disease among older residents.

Many workers are stuck in low-wage jobs, she said.

“It’s not enough to provide for their families,” Nan Tin said. “Most refugees have large families.”

No more than 20 percent of Burmese who graduated from high school last year are attending college, she said. Many of the rest fall into two categories: those who need to work to aid their families and those whose parents are unfamiliar with the college application and admission process.

But economic prospects are “getting better,” Nan Tin said, and she noted that more than 20 small businesses are run by Burmese refugees.

Bartlett said refugees, particularly first-generation arrivals, often start in low-wage jobs because they are not proficient in English or their foreign training does not fit U.S. certification requirements. Successive generations generally fare better, he said.

Eric Schwartz, then an assistant secretary of the State Department, discovered what he called “heartening and dismaying” conditions for newly arriving refugees of various nationalities when he visited Fort Wayne, Chicago and Minneapolis-St. Paul, Minn., in 2009.

In a 2010 message to State’s Bureau of Population, Refugees and Migration that carried the headline “Doing Right by Newly Arriving Refugees,” Schwartz wrote that he had witnessed “the deep and abiding commitment to refugees among overworked and underpaid agency personnel in the field, the determination of new arrivals, and the welcoming spirit of local school, healthcare and government officials.”

But Schwartz also wrote: “I heard from refugees threatened with eviction after only months in the United States. I learned that refugees often had to choose between buying food or diapers for their children. And I spoke with agency field staff overburdened by the number of refugee families they serve and the complexity of the resettlement needs of recent arrivals.”

Schwartz ended his dispatch by saying the State Department would increase its resettlement grants from $900 to $1,800 for each new refugee, an amount that has since grown to $1,875. Roughly half the money goes for administrative costs of resettlement agencies, Bartlett said, and half pays for rent, food and other necessities for the refugee.

Refugees do not receive federal financial assistance to return to their homelands – a distinct possibility for Fort Wayne’s Burmese in light of democratic reforms enacted by Myanmar in recent years.

“In theory, when it is safe for them return, they will. And they will want to,” Bartlett said.

Thanks to secondary migration – refugees moving to Fort Wayne from other American cities – the 2010 U.S. census counted 3,877 Burmese in Allen County. Only four U.S. cities were home to more. Some people involved with the local Burmese community, including Nan Tin, believe the number of residents is at least 6,000.

In some instances, she said, households might have been tallied as a single person and not as multiple family members. There also has been speculation that a number of Burmese might have identified themselves according to their ethnic groups – Myanmar has many – rather than their nationality.

The State Department has a nationwide ceiling of 18,000 refugee arrivals from East Asia in fiscal 2013, which ends Sept. 30. It expects 17,500 of them to be ethnic minority Burmese who have been living in refugee camps in Malaysia and Thailand.

The department has approved Catholic Charities for 170 refugee resettlements in fiscal 2013.

Burma Soldier" subject will speak at Hampton benefit for Commonwealth Catholic Charities

Bi Zet, left, and Sang Ceu Uk are refugees from Myanmar who have recently been resettled in Newport News by Commonwealth Catholic Charities. Jennifer L. Williams/Daily Press (Photos by Jennifer L. Williams/, Daily Press / April 11, 2013)

 

By Jennifer L. Williams, jwilliams@dailypress.com

A former solder in the totalitarian regime that has ruled Myanmar for more than 45 years and later joined that nation's pro-democracy movement will be the keynote speaker at Saturday's benefit for Commonwealth Catholic Charities.

The World Fusion gala is the organization's big annual fundraising event in Hampton Roads, and it helps raise money for CCC's work resettling refugees, providing interpreter services, immigration counseling and assisting refugees and immigrants in language studies, employment services and cultural orientation.

Myo Myint is the subject of the documentary film "Burma Soldier," which tells of his journey from soldier to spending 15 years in prison before moving to the U.S. and becoming an international humanitarian.

Commonwealth Catholic Charities counts numerous people from Myanmar, formerly known as Burma, among the refugees it has resettled in Hampton Roads.

"We have resettled quite a few from their county," said Karen Kurilko, division director for resettlement services with CCC. "They're coming out of Malaysia and Thailand. Probably over the last three or four years we've resettled a couple of hundred, families and singles.

"They've been a really great group to work. They're very hard workers and they're adapting very well."

In the past month Sang Ceu Uk, 28, and Bi Zet, 25, found a new home in Newport News after escaping Myanmar by way of Malaysia. They are from the same state, but not the same city, in Myanmar and did not know each other before they got here.

They are sharing an apartment, attending English as a Second Language classes and going to church as they get used to their new surroundings. They have also visited friends in Hampton and Newport News, and hope to find opportunities to play soccer and badminton.

For those who don't know the history and dangers of living in Myanmar, the men say it's simplest to explain that they left for their safety. Their families remain there, and they say that all of them were affected by the military regime's threats of forced labor and torture.

"Everyone is very afraid of the soldiers," Uk said.

State Department refugee relocation program winding down in Thailand

By Ellie Bogue of The News-Sentinel 

 

Federal officials visiting Fort Wayne alleviated refugees' worries that Thai refugee camps are closing so those people would not be returned to Burma.
Fort Wayne has a large community of Burmese, many of them refugees from the country, which was taken over in a military coup with a crackdown on the democratic opposition.
Lawrence Barlett, director of the Refugee Admissions Office of the U.S. Department of State's Bureau of Population, Refugees and Migration and Shelly Peterman, the office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees' regional representative for the United States and the Caribbean, met Thursday with local government officials, refugees and others.
Their meeting were held at Catholic Charities. The nonprofit organization, a mission of the Catholic Church, is one of the major resettlement organizations in Fort Wayne for refugees.
About 850 Burmese refugees arrived in Fort Wayne in 2008, 600 the year before, joining an estimated 5,000 already here.
In the first meeting of the day, Barlett and Pitterman were there to answer questions or concerns that Catholic Charities and some of its clients might have. The majority of the Catholic Charities clients who came were Burmese refugees. One of many questions they are concerned with is if the refugee camps along the Thai border are being dismantled and if so, what would happen to the programs that have been in place to move qualified refugees to the United States? Some of the people in the camps have already been approved. The Irwawaddy News Magazine, the “independent publication" that covers Burma and Southeast Asia from a Burmese perspective, had recently reported that the camps would be dismantled and refugees resettled back into Burma.
“That's not true,” Barlett said.
The resettlement program in Thailand is winding down, Barlett said. The camps are not closing. The US will continue to provide assistance to the camps; people can stay there as long as they want. The only reason they are shutting down the resettlement program is because most of the people in the original group have been resettled, but there are still a number of people who are qualified for resettlement still in the camps who now need to make a decision to come to America or stay in Thailand. The resettlement program in Malaysia in not shutting down and will keep operating.
Barlett said as the Burmese resettlement program winds down the majority of the agency's resettlement numbers will be coming from the Democratic Republic of Congo. Barlett said they are trying to hold their numbers at a steady 25 percent as they bring people in instead of hitting those high peaks like they did with the Burmese in 2007-08.
When that happened, Debbie Schmidt, Catholic Charities' eecutive director, said they quickly realized needed services were not in place for the large numbers they received, which caused some issues within the community.
Since then the department has worked to smooth the process, Barlett said, to make sure it is a moderate steady flow instead of a high number all at once.
Forty-nine out of the 50 states have resettlement programs for refugees. From October 2012 through this month refugees from East Asia have made up nearly 24.2 percent of the number of refugees coming into the United States with nearly 23.63 percent coming from Africa. It should be remembered that refugees are not eligible for the resettlement program until they have been displaced from their homeland for five years. So although thousands have recently fled Syria, it will be another five years before any of them are eligible to come to the United States. The only way to get around this is to get a priority status, such as life- threatening medical conditions that could make them eligible, Barlett said.
Barlett asked the refugees how they liked living in Fort Wayne, and overall they enjoy it. However some concern was expresses over elderly refugees who have never been to school and have a hard time applying for their citizenship. Even if they do get their citizenship they do not have a 30-year work history to be eligible for Social Security. At the moment there is no solution to this problem, although Barlett referred them to Matt Schomburg, Indiana's refugee coordinator in the Division of Family Resources Indiana Family and Social Services Administration and Catholic Charities.
Meetings continued throughout the day with various groups involved with the refugees, including the Burmese Advocacy Center, the Catherine Kasper Place, and government and health officials.
Barlett started his tour in Indianapolis and will wrap things up in Detroit on Friday before heading back to Washington D.C.

New refugees seek understanding

By ABIGAIL PELZER - Managing Editor (apelzer@timesrepublican.com) , 

         

In between classes as a full-time student at Marshalltown Community College and working as an interpretor for Child Abuse Prevention Services, Ba Blu Moo is hoping to make a difference in his community.

The 24-year-old comes from a Thailand refugee camp - speaks Karen, Burmese and English - and is a member of Liberty Baptist Church.

Moo, and other staff at CAPS are behind an effort to bridge the gap between new Burmese refugees in Marshalltown and the community in which they live.

Article Photos

T-R PHOTO BY ABIGAIL PELZER
Ba Blu Moo, a refugee from Thailand, is shown at Liberty Baptist Church in Marshalltown this week. Through his work as a translator at Child Abuse Prevention Services, he and other staff discovered a need for community outreach to Burmese residents.

"I want to be involved in the community," Moo said. "I know we can help understand each other and help each other."

The starting point is a community meeting about basic laws.

Moo and Esi Monroy, a child development specialist, discovered a growing need for community outreach while conducting home visits for the Building Healthy Families program. The program, facilitated by Child Abuse Prevention Services, serves 40 Burmese families.

"We're having to address so many questions about basic information that quite honestly there are months that go by before we get to child development information," Monroy said.

Specifically, questions about child safety, supervision and car seat laws are common, she said.

Monroy said the Karen pastor at Liberty Baptist Church said it best - "Where we come from we don't have many laws. The few laws we do have are not enforced."

Jana Enfield, executive director of CAPS, said she hopes the community meeting with the Marshalltown Police Department is a springboard for future events.

"We've had an awesome opportunity to learn from them about their culture," she said. "Our purpose is to welcome them and share about these laws ... often times it's just not knowing."

Marshalltown Police Chief Mike Tupper said aside from the language and cultural barriers, refugees tend to be apprehensive with police.

"With the obstacles these folks have faced in their home countries, they have a natural tendency to not trust police ... that is troublesome, and we want to fix that," Tupper said.

Community outreach is an integral part of what the police department does.

"We want to help people and we want them to feel comfortable coming to us," he said.

Tupper recognized that establishing relationships with the Burmese community has been difficult.

"It's been difficult to identify who the leaders in that community might be," he said. "Language and cultural barriers have made it difficult for everyone."

The community meeting will take place from 2 to 4 p.m. April 28 at a familiar place to many Burmese - Liberty Baptist Church.

For Randy Mason, pastor and founder of the church, Marshalltown's refugee population offers an opportunity to reach across cultural lines.

"It's interesting how God has placed these different groups in our midst," Mason said. "We have church services in four different languages every Sunday, which is a lot for a small town like Marshalltown."

Mason said Chin language church services began at the church in 2011 with about 70 people. It's grown to approximately 130 members, he said, and operates its ministry under the Liberty Baptist umbrella.

Soon after, the invitation was extended to those who speak the Karen language.

"The church provides a source of stability and we've been able to come along and reach out to (refugees) in a number of ways," Mason said. "They have invested in our ministry, taken jobs here and they are contributing to our community."

In Marshalltown schools, the largest wave of refugees arrived in the fall of 2010, said Rachel Inks, coordinator of English Language Learners for the school district.

There are currently 180 students from Burma in the school district, she said.

"About 10 percent of our English Language Learner population has changed from Spanish-speaking families to the families of Burma," Inks said.

While the spike in newcomers has leveled off, schools are still receiving refugee students, she said.

"One of the biggest challenges is that our languages don't come from the same roots. English and Spanish come from Latin roots," Inks said. "The languages from Burma don't have the same orientation for their languages."

Marshalltown schools can receive a refugee at any age, she said, so the district has seen a significant population at the high school join the school new to the English language.

The most common languages spoken by students are Karen, Karenni and Chin.

At JBS, the company is equipped with community liaisons to help the approximately 600 Burmese workers at the meat-packing plant adapt to Marshalltown.

Mike McQuade, human resources director at JBS, said the attraction to the company is its ability to provide training and services in many of their native languages. The retention rates of Burmese employees are very high, he said.

JBS also recently began a scholarship program for employees to learn English at the Iowa Valley Education & Training Center, he said.

"We're not going to be able to cleanly remove that (language) barrier but we can sure try to reduce the impact of it," McQuade said.

Inks said strengthening relationships with the Burmese population is important.

"We need to have some time to get to know each other in order to develop some relationships," she said.

The upcoming community meeting is a good place to start, according to Monroy.

"The message we want them to know that they're now in a safe place to practice their culture, religion and traditions," Monroy said. "That's what makes their new home in the United States what it is. We can all live here together and make it a good experience for both of us."

For more information about the community meeting, contact Esi Monroy at Child Abuse Prevention Services at 641-7521730.

Grief-stricken refugee finds solace in garden

Sunny finds solace in the community garden he tends at Tenison Woods college (Tasha Impey - ABC)

By Tasha Impey

Hsa Nay Mya 'Sunny', received news that his brothers, cousins, nephews, nieces, father-in-law and an unborn baby perished when a fire burned through the camp he had called home for 25 years.

"The refugee camp is burned.

"My family, a lot of people died in the fire," he said.

Sunny, his wife and their children came to Australia in 2009 as humanitarian refugees.

They had been living in the refugee camp on the northern Thai border for 25 years having fled their native Burma where human rights violations, including genocide, were common place.

"I don't want to ever go back to Burma.

"I worry that it is not safe for me and not safe for my children," he said.

The Karenni man is among several Mount Gambier families who previously lived in the camp who have lost friends and relatives in the fire which killed 39 people and left 100 injured.

The fire also destroyed hundreds of makeshift bamboo huts at the camp, as well as the camp's medical clinic, school, hospital, and two food warehouses.

An investigation into the cause of the fire continues after suggestions of foul play.

In light of his unspeakable grief, Sunny still finds reason to smile as he counts his blessings for a safe and happy life in Australia.

"I'm very happy I came to Australia.

"My children are very happy here, everyday they play soccer and go to school," he said.

To help him through his dark days, Sunny finds solace in his job managing the community garden at Tenison Woods college, cultivating seeds and growing plenty of vegetables.

He brings his children there after school, four of whom were born in the camp in Thailand, his youngest in Mount Gambier, where they tend to the garden together.

Spring onions sprout from the ground, beetroots hide beneath their leafy tops and lettuces line the aisles of fresh produce.

The garden, he says, is his happy place.

Refugee return must be voluntary, insists UNHCR

As international funding for the refugee camps in Thailand starts to decline, UN refugee officials have repeated assurances that any return to Myanmar must be voluntary, based on each individual’s informed decision, and must take place in safety and dignity.

A refugee walks past wooden houses at the Mae La refugee camp on the Thai-Myanmar border. Photo: AFP

Both the Thai and Myanmar governments have agreed that they will abide by those principles.

But the issue has started to heat up as international donors, noting the signing of ceasefire agreements in some of the country’s long-running conflicts, have started to reduce their funding for the camps.

Ms Vivian Tan, spokesperson for the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) in Bangkok, told The Myanmar Times by email that the time for voluntary return to Myanmar was not ripe, as the ceasefires had not yet been translated into peace agreements.

She said there were still many challenges in southeastern Myanmar that had to be addressed before refugee returns from the nine border camps could take place in a safe and sustainable way.

“UNHCR does not have a timeframe to start organising returns, but we do need to work with the refugees, [community-based organisations] and NGOs now to make sure that when the time eventually comes, we will all be ready and not be scrambling to cope with the demand for repatriation assistance,” Ms Tan said.

In February, an exile group called Burma Partnership released a documentary, 'Nothing About Us Without Us: Refugee’s Voices About Their Return To Burma', in which refugees expressed their concerns about the timing and circumstances of possible repatriation, including where they would live after their return.

UNHCR says it has sought to address the concerns raised in the documentary.

Ms Vicky Tennant, Head of Field Office, South-East, UNHCR Myanmar told The Myanmar Times that the refugees must be in a position to decide for themselves when conditions are right for them to go home.

“If and when they decide to do so, and provided they are able to do so voluntarily, safely, and in dignity, then UNHCR will work with the two governments concerned to ensure that they are able to do so in a way which makes sure that their rights are protected,” she said.

“For now, however, we do not think that the conditions are in place yet. For example, landmine clearance has not yet started, and real progress in the peace process will be needed in order to build the confidence of refugees and give them the long-term security they need in order to return home permanently.”

Ms Tennant said recent developments in Myanmar, particularly the ceasefire agreements and peace talks, had given rise to hopes that if progress continued many refugees would eventually be able to return home and re-establish their lives back in Myanmar.

She said the Burma Partnership video was “not as balanced as it could have been. It made some unfair allegations against UNHCR and did not fully reflect our responses to those allegations. As a result, the film may have contributed further to the refugees’ anxiety about repatriation,” she said.

“The film also suggested that UNHCR is involved in ‘relocation sites’ in southeastern Myanmar for returning refugees to settle in. This is incorrect,” she said.

“We do think, however, that it is important for planning to take place in Myanmar to absorb refugees who will eventually return home. The Myanmar authorities have said that returnees will be able to choose where to return to within the country.”

Human Rights: EU criticized for lifting Myanmar sanctions

As the European Union permanently lifts sanctions against Myanmar, rights campaigners warn that the country is on 'the front edge of a major disaster.'

The EU's decision to eliminate most of the remaining sanctions on Myanmar ignores strong evidence of ethnic cleansing of Rohingya Muslims by the government, says Human Rights Watch.
The New York-based campaign group released a report alleging the involvement of state security forces during last year's violence in Arakan state.
The 153-page document was issued hours ahead of a meeting of the EU's Foreign Affairs Council in Luxembourg on Monday.
After decades of tensions between Buddhists and Muslims in Myanmar, fighting broke out last June and again in October. Over 180 people were killed and more than 125,000 people were displaced.
Other ethnic conflicts have also intensified since Myanmar - also known as Burma - opened up following decades of military rule in 2011.
Lost leverage?

The UNHCR has urged Myanmar's neighbors to let in refugees

Speaking to DW in neighboring Thailand, the report's author Matthew Smith said: "I think the economic forces within the EU have taken over these debates and this is largely why we are seeing the sanctions lifted. There is too much interest in capitalizing - in the strict sense - on Myanmar's political opening and unfortunately human rights are being cast aside."
Smith said Brussels had lost some of its leverage to pressure Myanmar leaders by rolling back non-military sanctions. He called on EU leaders to figure out a "clear-eyed approach" to address "serious human rights problems."
HRW's report included around 200 individual and group interviews with Muslims and Buddhists on both sides of the ongoing ethnic tensions. Witnesses described how villages were burned to the ground, civilians were hacked to death and bodies were dumped into mass graves.
"Contrary to the government's assertion that what we are seeing is purely at a communal level, what we have found has been a high level of involvement of state security forces," Smith said.
Nowhere to go
The Burmese government considers ethnic Rohingya illegal immigrants from Bangladesh. But thousands of these people claim their roots in the country dating back several generations. The Rohingya were excluded from a 1982 law which guaranteed citizenship for many other ethnic groups. HRW has demanded the law be amended.
Refugee camps have been set up for those internally displaced by the bloodshed in Arakan state while thousands have attempted to flee to neighboring countries. Bangladesh has refused to host new refugees despite pledges of international assistance. Travel within Myanmar is restricted for most Rohingya.
The only remaining choice is to escape by sea. But likewise, Thailand, Malaysia and Sri Lanka have turned arriving boats away from their shores and hundreds have died at sea.

The EU has lifted sanctions in recognition of Myanmar's ongoing democratic reforms

"Now the numbers of Rohingya who are fleeing (in boats) include women and children. Typically it was males that would take the risky journey by sea and the numbers are increasing significantly," Smith added.
"There is an urgent need that the international community address this and that all these governments be pressured to at least offer temporary shelter to the Rohingya and to provide UN agencies, including the UNHCR, access to these populations when they arrive."
Coming crisis
Aid agencies warn that the upcoming monsoon season is likely to spell disaster for those living in makeshift camps within Myanmar. The region is regularly hit by Cyclones and subject to severe flooding.
Maung Kyaw Nu, President of the Burma Rohingya Association Thailand has demanded that refugees be moved uphill. "Mostly, these people are given shelter the low lands - paddy land areas. Most people live in straw huts. So when the monsoon starts, there will be floods and I am frightened (whether) people are going to (stay) alive or not. The situation is already very dire for those in camps."
Kyaw Nu, whose organization has more than 3,500 members, thinks the EU is ignoring the Rohingya "genocide" by permanently lifting economic and trade sanctions on Myanmar.

Human rights should not be cast aside for economic benefits, say rights activists

"Their interest is business, geopolitical and strategic. Their interests are (put) above human rights. Most of the world's leaders are doing business with Myanmar. So I ask them to save humanity first before economic interests, that is, if humanity in the world still exists."
In a statement released on Monday, the EU called for additional measures to deal with "inter-communal violence" and called on the Myanmar government to address the status of the Rohingya.
The council also highlighted the need for "unhindered and full access for humanitarian and development aid workers to all communities affected by conflict and sectarian violence."

Melbourne Diocese building on links with Myanmar Church

By Rowan Callick

​Archbishop Philip Freier, who led a team to Myanmar in February, is now promoting efforts – incorporating organisations and individuals beyond the diocese - to follow up the two week visit to the country which is only now emerging from 60 years of isolation under a military dictatorship.
In April, he hosted at Bishopscourt a diverse group of 35 people, including several Burmese clergy and other leaders, to discuss priorities in building on the links now established – which has already triggered further networking to plan action.
The group included former ambassador to Burma and China Garry Woodard, the Rev Dr Lindsay Wilson of Ridley College, Father Michael Smith and Associate Professor Marie Joyce of the Australian Catholic University – which has provided online courses for students in the refugee camps - senior lecturer in social work at RMIT University Susan Costello, Naw Tamla Moo and the Rev David Caro - respectively the general secretary and chairman of the Karen Anglican Ministries on the Border - Bishops Philip Huggins and Paul White, architect Peter Slifirski,  board member of Anglican Overseas Aid Yvonne Poon, coordinator of the diocese’s Multicultural Ministry Canon Alan Nichols, and the vicar of Werribee the Revd Ron Peterson.
The two key requests that came from Myanmar’s Archbishop Stephen Than Myint Oo were for assistance in seizing the opportunities now presented to the church to participate in rebuilding the country, with its many fractured relationships including between ethnic groups, and for help in re-establishing the church’s own infrastructure, its buildings – including churches, schools and hospitals – destroyed or in poor shape, and in a legal limbo as Myanmar struggles back towards a rule of law.
The anticipated return of many thousands of Anglicans from refugee camps across the Thai border, and the loss of two generations of potential leaders as able young Burmese have sought education overseas including in Australia, add to the complex challenges facing the church there.
Archbishop Stephen is seeking help especially, said Archbishop Philip, to establish a non government organisation to take on the church’s emerging liberation and development opportunities, and to chart an appropriate legal structure to enable the church to gain secure possession of its plant and assets, however degraded and dilapidated.
The further networking since the meeting at Bishopscourt has included plans to provide technical help towards the creation of an education policy, and discussion between architect Peter Slifirski and experienced surveyors about assisting practical policies to provide legal certainty for church ownership – and also, potentially, for land being reclaimed by returning refugees.
Rowan Callick is Asia-Pacific Editor for The Australian newspaper, and an examining chaplain in the Diocese of Melbourne.

UNHCR to interview Rohingya migrants in southern Thailand

Mizzima News  

The Thai authorities are to allow the UN’s refugee agency access to 843 Rohingya boatpeople who were arrested over the past week in southern Thailand.

Migrants thought to be from Burma's Rohingya community are pictured on January 16, 2013, at a detention center in southern Thailand after they were rounded up in raids on hidden camps in the Thai south. (Photo: AFP)

The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) will then assess whether the immigrants are seeking asylum or employment, and whether any of them are victims of human trafficking.

A UNHCR spokesperson in Bangkok is quoted by the Bangkok Post as saying that no dates have yet been agreed but that the UN was pushing to do the interviews as soon as possible.

However, no announcement has yet been made to confirm that the migrants arrived from Burma.

Thailand’s Defense Minister Sukumpol Suwanatat said on Wednesday the UN and the international community should play a greater role in addressing the migration of Rohingya.

"We have to take care of them when they come ashore," he is reported by the Bangkok Post as saying, noting the next step would be to send them to a third country.

Despite reports in regional media speculating that the Rohingya migrants might join in the Muslim insurgency in Thailand’s southern provinces, the Thai Defense Minister said there was no reason to believe the Rohingyas are linked to such activities.

Between December and February is Southeast Asia’s cool season when economic migrants and refugees from Burma and Bangladesh traditionally take advantage of the calmer waters to attempt journeys across the Andaman Sea, usually aiming to get to Malaysia or Indonesia.

This “sailing season” has seen a particularly high number of Rohingya boatpeople fleeing sectarian violence in Burma’s restive Rakhine State.

Help needed to deal with influx of refugees

The Nation

Thailand needs assistance from neighbouring governments and international organisations to help resolve the Rohingya issue

The call from Chularatchamontri, Thailand's Muslim spiritual leader, for the international community to help around 850 Rohingya refugees should be responded to with concrete action. While the international community and non-governmental organisations are calling for Thailand not to deport these people back to Myanmar, for safety reasons, they must also help Thailand resettle these illegal migrants. Thailand has provided basic humanitarian care for these people, who were smuggled into Thailand earlier this month.

Earlier this week, representatives of more than 20 countries attended a teleconference to hear the grievances of these people. Delegates from Austria, Belgium, France, Germany, Australia, the United States and New Zealand, as well as the European Union, expressed sympathy for the Rohingya plight. But sympathy alone is not enough. All parties concerned have to help the Rohingya find a solution to their plight.

At least 843 Rohingya have been arrested in police sweeps of remote areas and rubber plantations near the border with Malaysia, leading the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) to try to confirm whether any of them plan to seek asylum. An additional 60 Rohingya were found a couple of days ago, making the total of new arrivals 917.

The Thai government has provided temporary care while they wait to hear whether they will be deported back to Myanmar or sent to a third country. Thailand has given the go-ahead to the UNHCR to help these people, but there are important issues that need to be addressed. First, who is smuggling these people into Thailand? They must be found and prosecuted. Second, Thailand and other countries cannot ignore the plight of these illegal migrants by shipping them on to other places as quickly as possible.

This group of illegal migrants is not the first to arrive here and they are unlikely to be the last. When inter-communal violence broke out in Myanmar's Rakhine State in October and December, 2,817 Rohingya refugees entered the country and were detained. This is not to mention previous waves of Rohingya who have sought refuge in Thailand over the past few years.

The Thai government has given access to the UNHCR to visit the recently detained group to identify them and find out whether any were illegally trafficked. The UNHCR and other responsible agencies must carry out their task promptly and proceed to the next step urgently, instead of leaving these people waiting desperately. Thailand cannot deal with an influx of Rohingya without the sincere cooperation of the international community to help solve the problem. A lack of action would simply encourage more Rohingya migrants into the country.

The root cause of the problem must be addressed, and that is the ethnic conflict between the predominantly Buddhist people of Myanmar and the Rohingya, a Muslim minority.

The international community has so far inadequately pressured the governments of Myanmar and Bangladesh to address the issue.

The Burmese Rohingya Association of Thailand has called on the National Human Rights Commission of Thailand to prevent any deportation. They are now calling for Muslim nations such as Malaysia and Indonesia to take in these migrants. Apparently these 800 people wanted to migrate to Malaysia before they were detained in Thailand.

Lieutenant-General Paradorn Pattanathabutr, secretary-general of the National Security Council, has said Thai authorities will have to deal carefully with the migrants. If they are left to suffer in poor conditions, he warned, they could be lured into joining campaigns against the authorities.

Thailand has provided shelter for displaced people since the 1970s, during the Vietnam War and subsequent conflicts in Cambodia and Laos. And the record shows that limited resources for displaced people can result in poor conditions and ill will towards the Thai authorities.

The Thai government has decided not to open an encampment for the Rohingya. Some of them will find temporary shelter at mosques until the international community and UNHCR can find a solution to their situation.The efficiency and sincerity of the UNHCR and international community in handling this issue will be shown by their actions.

A refuge for Myanmar refugee kids

By KENNETH CHAW star2@thestar.com.my

Volunteers Heidy Quah and Khoo Ghee Ken (right) make lessons fun and interactive for the refugee kids.

A group of 18-year-olds take on the responsibility of providing education for over 70 Myanmar refugee kids.

IT is way after midnight and college student Heidy Quah is hunched over her desk, her brows furrowed in concentration.

Instead of surfing the Net, watching her favourite drama series or rushing to finish up some last-minute assignments like most of her peers, Quah is busy drawing and cutting out caricatures of various shapes and sizes.

“Sometimes I stay up till 4am to prepare my teaching materials,” says Quah.

The Diploma in Business student at a local college is a committed volunteer teacher at a refugee school where she conducts art and craft lessons, among others.

At just 18, Quah is the founder of a registered non-government organisation, Persatuan Kebajikan Perlindungan Kanak-kanak Pelarian (Refuge For The Refugees), which aims to provide education for Myanmar refugee children.

As of October last year, 91,520 Myanmar refugees and asylum seekers who are hoping to build a better life for themselves in First World countries like Australia, Canada and the United States, are temporarily placed in Malaysia. The immigration process usually takes up to several years before they are finally resettled in their designated countries.

Meanwhile, precious time goes by as children of these refugees – at the height of their formative years – have no access to the local education system due to their refugee status. The United Nations High Commissioner For Refugees (UNHCR) has teamed up with various NGOs to set up learning centres for them but out of 13,800 children who are of school-going age, only 40% of them have access to education.

Chin Children’s Education Centre (CCEC) is one such school. Over 70 Myanmar refugee children from ages four to 16 fill the dilapidated community hall of a low-cost flat in Kuala Lumpur, for five hours every weekday. The learning environment is far from conducive as the classes, which are separated by sheets of cloth, are all held in the small hall.

Five teachers – two sponsored by UNHCR while three are hired – work tirelessly to help the children learn English, Mathematics and Science. Due to the overwhelming number of students, the teachers are often unable to step into every class, leaving many of them unattended.

Ten-year-old Pari’s favourite subject is Science and she names Heidy her favourite teacher.

Early last year, Quah had just finished secondary school and was waiting to start college. After hearing about a volunteer opportunity at a school camp, she roped in her friends Andrea Prisha, Chan Weili and Khoo Ghee Ken to volunteer as teachers at CCEC on a weekly basis.

As time went by, the youths established a bond with the refugee kids and were devastated when they heard that the school had to close down in a matter of months.

“CCEC was funded by UNHCR for two years under the Social Protection Fund. The contract expired in July 2012 and was not renewed,” explains Quah.

With college just around the corner, the group was faced with the difficult decision of whether they should continue helping the school.

Eventually, Quah and her friends made the bold choice of not only continuing to teach the students every week but to take on the school’s financial burden as well.

Refuge For The Refugees came into the picture when Quah realised that corporations were sceptical about providing funding to an unregistered NGO. Apart from a few phone calls from apprehensive officials of the Registrar of Societies, the application process went smoothly and before they knew it, RFTR was up and running.

Six months have passed since its inception and Quah confesses that running the NGO has not been easy. They need about RM1,200 a month to keep the school going. This sum covers the rental, utility bills and stationery for the kids.

Sponsorships are hard to come by at times.

A curtain separates one class from another due to space constraints.

Sponsorships

“When we e-mail companies for sponsorships and they find out that we are a bunch of 18-year-olds, many people think that we are up to no good,” says Quah. Thankfully, some sponsors are willing to keep an open mind. Quah recalls a man who wanted to see the school for himself before making a donation.

Online volunteer portals Do Good. Volunteer. and Do Something Good have also served as effective avenues for them to get the word out, fetching sizeable donations from the public. In times of financial drought, they manage to get by, raising small sums through fundraisers like bake sales.

When it comes to ensuring quality education for every child, the youths have to work doubly hard as they are not formally trained teachers. They even come up with their own educational materials to supplement those provided by UNHCR.

Quah and her friends sure know how to make lessons fun for the kids. Sweets are used to help the younger kids learn how to count, while art and craft lessons provide an avenue for the students to develop their creativity.

“RFTR is compiling a proper syllabus for the year, so volunteers can start teaching immediately without having to prepare any material,” shares Quah.

“To get round the language barrier, we carry an English to Chin (dialect) dictionary,” Khoo adds.

The team volunteers for two hours on Wednesdays but every visit to CCEC takes a whopping three hours for the team to travel to and fro, as they rely on public transport. On top of that, they have to allocate time to plan for the day’s lesson besides finding ways to raise funds.

Andrea, a Foundation in Arts student at a local university, asserts that volunteering does not affect her studies.

“College is a priority for me, but these kids mean a lot to me as well. If I have assignments, I will finish them first to make time to volunteer; it is workable,” says Andrea.

Although Khoo, an A-Level student, is unable to teach during weekdays, he helps out with events on weekends, drafts proposals and letters, and updates their Facebook page.

Supportive

Chan, an Australian Matriculation student, does not mind turning down movie outings and skipping teh tarik sessions with friends, just so she can find time for her volunteer work. “Sacrifices have to be made from time to time if I am to teach at the centre,” says Chan.

It helps that the parents of these dedicated and committed youths are supportive of their activities.

Quah and her team of enthusiastic volunteers dispel the common perception that young people just want to have fun and take little interest in the plight of the less fortunate. Khoo points out that many of his peers are not involved in volunteer work because the avenues just aren’t presented to them.

Quah believes parents play an important role in instilling compassion for the underprivileged, in their children. “My parents exposed me to people who were less fortunate from a very young age. We used to celebrate Chinese New Year in orphanages where we would play and sing songs with the kids,” she recalls.

“When I don’t see them for a week and they tell me they miss me, that makes me happy,” says Andrea.

Quah finds great satisfaction in charting the children’s progress. “There was this boy in my class who used to be very destructive. He would hit other kids for no apparent reason. I later learned that his dad is an alcoholic who physically abuses him. I decided to pay more attention to him and appointed him as class monitor. So instead of starting fights, he is now the one who stops fights,” says Quah, who is proud to note a change in the boy’s behaviour.

Indeed, it is positive changes like these which keep the youths going. Quah is driven by a vision to take RFTR to a new level and reach out to more refugee children so that they can also enjoy the gift of education.

To make a donation or find out more about volunteer opportunities at Refuge For The Refugees, call Heidy Quah (012-307 3714) or visit facebook.com/refugefortherefugees or e-mail refugefortherefugees@gmail.com

Burmese refugees sold on by Thai officials

By Jonah Fisher BBC News, Phuket, Thailand

 

Ahmed, a Rohingya, said he was caught by the Thai navy and traded to traffickers

An investigation by the BBC has revealed that Thai officials have been selling boat people from Burma to human traffickers.

Thousands of Muslim Rohingya have fled to sea in recent months after deadly communal violence in Rakhine State, with many heading east across the Andaman Sea to Thailand.

The BBC found that boats were being intercepted by the Thai navy and police, with deals then made to sell the people on to traffickers who transport them south towards Malaysia.

The Thai government say they are taking the allegations seriously and have promised to investigate.

'Canned fish'

In November Ahmed said goodbye to his wife and eight children and left western Burma.

Background: Burma unrest

 

What sparked recent violence?

The rape and murder of a young Buddhist woman in Rakhine in May set off a chain of deadly religious clashes in June and then October.

 

Who are the Rohingyas?

The United Nations describes Rohingya as a persecuted religious and linguistic minority from western Burma. The Burmese government, on the other hand, says they are relatively recent migrants from the Indian sub-continent. Neighbouring Bangladesh already hosts several hundred thousand refugees from Burma and says it cannot take any more.

His fishing boat had been destroyed in clashes between Muslim Rohingya and Rakhine Buddhists, and he needed to earn a living.

With 60 others he travelled for 13 days on a flimsy wooden boat across the Andaman Sea to the coast of Thailand.

When they were caught by the Thai navy not far from shore Ahmed thought his ordeal was over. In fact it had just begun.

That night the Rohingya were taken from the border town of Ranong in a police van. After two hours they were bundled out and put in the back of six smaller vehicles and hidden under nets.

"We were forced to lay down next to each other just like canned fish," he said.

Ahmed did not know it at the time but a trade had taken place. The 61 Rohingya were now heading south towards Malaysia in the custody of people-smugglers.

When they got out of the vehicles they were prisoners in Su Ngai Kolok, a town on the Thai Malaysia border.

"They dug a hole for us to use as a toilet. We ate, slept and excreted in the same place," he said. "The smell was horrible. I was poked with an iron and beaten with a chain."

Ahmed's back is scarred from the beatings he received

The traffickers had paid money for the Rohingya and were determined to get their money back. Ahmed and the other Rohingya were periodically given a phone to call friends and family to beg for help.

"The broker said that they bought us from police," he said. "If we don't give them money they won't let us go. They said: 'We don't care if you die here'."

The price for Ahmed's life was set at 40,000 Thai Baht, about $1,300 (£820) - a substantial amount for an ex-fisherman. Ahmed called his wife and instructed her to sell a cow. But that only raised half the amount.

After a month as a captive, as he began to despair a fellow Rohingya in Thailand came to his rescue and loaned him the rest.

Ahmed was set free and put on a bus back north to Phuket. Despite all that happened to him, he is surprisingly calm about his treatment by Thai officials.

"I'm not angry at the navy. I don't hold any anger or grudge with me anymore. I'm so grateful that I'm alive," he said.

'Natural solution'

With weather conditions favourable Rohingya boats are now arriving on the Thai coast almost everyday. And Ahmed is not the only one being sold by Thai officials.

Whole families are trying to escape the communal violence in western Burma

We took a close look at the fate of one particular boat which arrived on New Year's Day off the holiday island of Phuket.

On 2 January the 73 men, women and children were brought onshore, put in trucks and it was announced that they were being driven to the Thai/Burma border crossing at Ranong and deported.

But they did not get that far. A deal had been struck to sell the Rohingya to people smugglers.

When the trucks reached the town of Kuraburi, the Rohingya were transferred back into a boat and pushed back out to sea.

We spoke to one of the brokers involved in the deal. They said that 1.5 million baht (about $50,000, £31,500) had been transferred from Malaysia and paid to officials in Thailand. That amount was confirmed to us by other members of the Rohingya community in Thailand.

The Thai authorities told us they believe there are just a few corrupt officials. But in the border town of Ranong a Thai official closely linked with the Rohingya issue told us that working with the brokers was now regarded as the "natural" solution.

With the Rohingya denied Burmese citizenship, deportation is fraught with difficulties.

Thailand considers the Rohingya to be economic migrants

Thailand in turn does not want to encourage people that it considers to be almost almost exclusively economic migrants.

"The Rohingya want to go Malaysia and Malaysia accepts these people because they are Muslims too," the official said. "No matter what they will try and go there, the question is how they get there."

Malaysia has allowed the United Nations Refugee Agency to assess Rohingya claims for asylum. Thailand does not, reserving the right to determine for itself who it considers to be a refugee.

'Systematic solution'

We took our information to the Thai foreign ministry. Permanent Secretary Sihasak Puangketkaew told us an investigation was underway.

"We cannot at this moment conclude who these perpetrators are but the Thai government is determined to get to the bottom of the problem," he said.

"At the same time the Thai government is doing its best to take care of these people on the basis of humanitarian principles.

"At the same time we feel very strongly that all of us will have to work together through international co-operation to see how we can put on place a durable and systematic solution."

There have been influxes of Rohingya before and in 2009 the Thai government was heavily criticised for its policy of towing boats back out to sea.

Those boats were almost exclusively male and the Thai government said they were economic migrants. This time it is different.

Ethnic clashes in western Burma have forced more than 100,000 Rohingya into camps and for the first time the boats crossing the Andaman Sea are a mix of men, women and children.