Tag: Rohingya

At least 18,500 Rohingya flee to Bangladesh as Rakhine unrest rages

MAUNGDAW , Myanmar (AFP) — At least 18,500 Rohingya have crossed into Bangladesh since fighting erupted in Myanmar’s neighboring Rakhine state six days ago, the International Organization for Migration said Wednesday. Plumes of smoke billowed from several burning villages in the worst-hit section of the state, according to an AFP reporter on a government-led trip to the area, as the violence showed little sign of abating despite security sweeps by Myanmar’s police and troops. The clashes began on […]

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Bangladesh pushes on with Rohingya island plan

DHAKA, Bangladesh (AFP) – Bangladesh will push ahead with a controversial plan to relocate tens of thousands of Rohingya refugees from Myanmar to a remote island despite warnings it is uninhabitable and prone to flooding. The government has set up a committee comprising state officials in the coastal districts, ordering authorities to help identify and relocate undocumented Myanmar nationals to Thengar Char in the Bay of Bengal. “The committee will assist transferring both registered and […]

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Human Rights Watch calls for ASEAN countries to solve Rohingya crisis

  (Reuters) — Human Rights Watch says they hope to see countries from the Association of Southeast Asia Nations (ASEAN) push towards a resolution of Myanmar’s Rohingya crisis, when they meet in Yangon on Monday (December 19). Myanmar has called an emergency meeting of ASEAN foreign ministers to discuss the Rohingya crisis, just three days after the United Nations said it was getting daily reports of rapes and killings of the Rohingya minority in Myanmar, […]

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21,000 Rohingya flee to Bangladesh from Myanmar: IOM

DHAKA, Bangladesh (AFP) – by Shafiqul ALAM More than 20,000 Rohingya have fled to Bangladesh in recent weeks, humanitarian officials said on Tuesday, following a bloody crackdown by the army in neighbouring Myanmar. Bangladesh has stepped up patrols on the border to try to stem the tide of refugees since an eruption of unrest in Myanmar’s western state of Rakhine in early October. But Sanjukta Sahany, head of the International Organisation for Migration (IOM) office […]

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Thousands of Rohingya flee Myanmar violence

TEKNAF, Bangladesh (AFP) – by Munir UZ ZAMAN Sam JAHAN Horrifying stories of gang rape, torture and murder are emerging from among the thousands of desperate Rohingya migrants who have pushed into Bangladesh in the past few days to escape unfolding chaos in Myanmar. Up to 30,000 of the impoverished ethnic group have fled their homes, the United Nations says, after troops poured into the narrow strip where they live earlier this month. Bangladesh has resisted […]

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30,000 displaced by violence in Myanmar’s Rakhine: UN

YANGON, Myanmar (AFP) – Up to 30,000 people have been displaced by violence in Myanmar’s Rakhine state, half of them over the course of last weekend when dozens of people died in clashes with the military, the UN said Friday. Troops have poured into a strip of land along the Bangladesh border, an area which is largely home to the stateless Muslim Rohingya minority, since coordinated attacks on police posts last month. The army this […]

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Myanmar’s Suu Kyi reiterates stance on not using term ‘Rohingya’

    (Reuters)  Myanmar leader Aung San Suu Kyi has told the U.N. Special Rapporteur on Human Rights that the government will avoid using the term “Rohingya” to describe a persecuted Muslim minority in the country’s northwest, an official told Reuters on Monday. Members of the 1.1 million group, who identify themselves by the term “Rohingya” and live in apartheid-like conditions, are seen by many Myanmar Buddhists as illegal immigrants from Bangladesh. The term is […]

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Myanmar Rohingya boat dead ‘forced’ to travel by sea: witnesses

  by Athens Zaw Zaw YANGON, Myanmar (AFP) — Witnesses to a boat capsize that left some 20 people dead, including children, say the victims were from the persecuted Rohingya Muslim minority and blamed the tragedy on travel restrictions that forced them to journey by sea. At least 21 people, including nine children, died after a packed boat capsized in choppy waters on Tuesday as it approached the Rakhine state capital of Sittwe, according to the […]

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U.S. urges Myanmar to improve Rohingya living standards

  Living conditions for Rohingya Muslims in Myanmar should be improved to discourage them from making risky sea journeys at the hands of human traffickers, the U.S. Deputy Secretary of State said on Friday (May 22). Antony Blinken made the comments after holding talks with the government in the capital Naypyidaw, to discuss the migrant crisis that has left thousands of people stranded on overcrowded boats in the Bay of Bengal. Myanmar’s military chief said […]

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Malacanang says Phl gov’t ready to help runaway Asian migrants

MAY 19 (Eagle News) — Malacanang has assured that the Philippine government will assist Asian migrants who will reach the country’s ports in solidarity with the United Nations convention relating to refugees. Communication Secretary Herminio Coloma, Jr. issued the statement Monday saying that the Philippine government will help address the plight of runaway Asian migrants, known as ‘boat people’, in accordance with its commitment to the 1951 Convention Relating to the Status of Refugees. Coloma […]

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Indonesia struggles to provide some facilities for migrants

MAY 18 (Reuters) — Local Indonesian authorities in Aceh said on Monday (May 18) that shelters for migrants from Myanmar and Bangladesh, lack basic showering facilities. Nearly 800 migrants came ashore in Aceh in Indonesia on Friday (May 15), taking the number that have made land in Indonesia and the northwest of Malaysia to more than 2,500 over the past week. One local Indonesian government official said while they had enough food for the migrants, […]

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Indonesian authorities provide food, shelter and medical assistance to rescued migrants

MAY 16 (Reuters) — Indonesian authorities were busy on Saturday (May 16) morning, providing food to the hundreds of Rohingya and Bangladeshi migrants who were brought to shore by local fishermen during the previous day from their boat which was drifting off the coast. The nearly 800 migrants who arrived on Friday (May 15) are being sheltered in a warehouse in Langsa, off the coast of Sumatra island. Another 100 who were rescued on Friday […]

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