Arakan News Agency
Myanmar’s main opposition political party and members of some small parties have objected to the government’s decision to grant free travel to Rohingya Muslims with National Verification Cards (NVC).
Members of the Solidarity and Development Party (USDP) told the media on Tuesday at the party’s headquarters in Yangon that they would send a letter to President Mynt Win expressing their disapproval of the decision announced last week by Win Myat Aye, Myanmar’s welfare minister.
The government has announced that Rohingyas who have lived in IDP camps since fleeing violence in Myanmar’s Arakan state enjoy freedom of travel if they accept NVC cards and fill out an immigration form.
NVC cards are temporary cards granted by the government to naturalization applicants under naturalization, which the Rohingya refused to accept earlier.
“Any person with a card can apply for citizenship and can become a citizen within five months,” Win Myat said.
In addition to denial of nationality, the Government of Myanmar prevents the Rohingya from traveling freely outside the camps without permission and denying them access to education, employment and health care.
“If NVC carriers can travel freely, it would be very dangerous for our country,” said Nanda Hla Mint, a spokeswoman for USDP. “What we want to say today is that we are in the same position and we refuse to allow NVC cardholders to travel freely even if the authorities permit it, .
Rohingya refugees who have applied to return to Myanmar from camps in neighboring Bangladesh and those displaced in Myanmar see the NVC as unnecessary and instead called for full citizenship because they consider their parents to be Myanmar citizens.
The USDP is not the only political party whose members oppose the grant of travel rights to Rohingya. Han Shwe, vice president of the National Unity Party, noted that Myanmar’s 2008 Constitution states that it can only enjoy the full rights of citizens, including the right to freedom of movement in all Across the country. “That’s why we have to deal with this issue very carefully,” he said.
“The NVC holders should not be allowed to travel freely,” said Khin Maung Su, president of the NDF. If so, they will be like citizens, but they are not. ”
Tun Aung Kyaw, secretary of the Arakan Party, representing the interests of Arakan ethnic peoples in Arakan, urged the government to reconsider its decision.
“The Bengalis who really lived in Arakan can speak the language of Burma or Rakhine,” he said, using a derogatory expression of the Rohingya who are illegal immigrants from Bangladesh.
