Strict surveillance at Rohingya shelter
Arakan News Agency Police have stepped up surveillance measures at a temporary shelter in Nakhon Si Thammarat housing 95 illegal Rohingya migrants following information that some Myanmar workers had tried to lure them into escaping. The move came after Sofie Muhammad, an interpreter at the shelter, told police that some Myanmar migrants working in Hua […]
U.S. envoys warn Myanmar against stoking religious tensions
Arakan News Agency Top U.S. diplomat on human rights Tom Malinowski wrapped up visit to Myanmar on Friday with warnings that discrimination against religious minorities in the predominantly Buddhist nation is stoking already dangerous sectarian tensions. At a news conference concluding his six-day visit, U.S. Assistant Secretary of State Tom Malinowski said Myanmar’s leaders were […]
Critics claim UK government puts Myanmar trade over human rights
Arakan News Agency Critics have slammed Mr Hugo Swire MP, a junior minister in the UK’s Foreign Office, on January 15, for his failure to provide a robust response to a litany of Myanmar human rights abuses during a debate held in the British Parliament. The UK-based NGOs Burma Campaign UK and Burmese Rohingya Organisation […]
Rohingya refugees in India pray for better days
Arakan News Agency Hundreds displaced by Myanmar violence face grim future as they struggle to survive with no assistance. As the sun rises over the railway tracks in the densely populated Jammu region, children play in heaps of garbage while their parents begin to tidy their tarp-covered homes. “We have houses made of leaves and […]
UN Human Rights Envoy Visits Arakan State, Meets Officials and IDPs
Arakan News Agency The Special Rapporteur on the Situation of Human Rights in Myanmar, Ms Yanghee Lee, visited Sittwe and Myebon on Arakan State. She had frank talks with the Rakhine State Chief Minister U Maung Ohn, as well as members of the Emergency Coordination Centre and the Rakhine Elders. Ms. Yanghee Lee visited the […]
Dhaka seeks help to solve Rohingya issue
Arakan News Agency Bangladesh yesterday urged the international community to come up with a “louder voice” to resolve the long-pending Rohingya refugee issue and ensure their return to their homeland. The foreign ministry held a meeting with stakeholders at the ministry with Foreign Secretary M Shahidul Haque in the chair where the current situation over […]
Rohingya Muslims fleeing Myanmar seek sanctuary in Malaysia
Arakan News Agency Some 40,000 Rohingyas in Malaysia carry refugee cards issued by the United Nations refugee agency, UNHCR. Possibly just as many have yet to be registered, and live in fear of being detained and deported. Activists say that in recent months as many as 18,000 have arrived, desperately straining the community’s limited resources. […]
Thailand authorities’ arrests involved in trafficking of Rohingya
Arakan Nes Agency Thai authorities managed to arrest one of the oldest, traffickers in possession of a large amount of money estimated at millions of Thai currency during one of raid in the beaches of Thailand waiting to receive a batch of Rohingya migrants fleeing from Arakan to rickety boats across international waters. The Arakan […]
Myanmar must give citizenship to Rohingya Muslims: UN
Arakan News Agency The U.N. General Assembly’s human rights committee on Friday approved a resolution urging Myanmar to allow its persecuted Rohingya Muslim minority “access to full citizenship on an equal basis.” The committee adopted the resolution by consensus, though Myanmar’s ambassador objected to the U.N.’s use of the term “Rohingya,” saying it “will only […]
David Burrowes MP: Burma’s reforms– genuine freedom or a false dawn?
Arakan News Agency With reforms ground to a halt and the continuation of appalling human rights abuses, David Burrowes MP calls for the UK to join in the chorus of disapproval. Ten years ago a few months before the general election a constituent told me about the appalling human rights abuse in Burma. I pledged […]
UN urges Thailand against deporting Rohingya boat people
Arakan News Agency The United Nations has urged Thai authorities against deporting more than 200 Muslim boatpeople from Myanmar being held in southern Thailand after they were intercepted en route to Malaysia, the international organization said on November 11. Thai police arrested 259 people on an island off the southern province of Ranong Saturday, days […]
Trafficking Rebellion Grows
Arakan News Agency Checkpoints have been set up by anti-human trafficking officials on the main road towards Phuket to ensure hundreds of Rohingya Muslims, arrested at the weekend, are not suddenly trucked south to Thailand’s notorious secret border jungle camps. The checkpoints, manned by staff of the district chief of Takuapa, represent the new mood […]
New York Times: Obama to send a clear message to Myanmar
Arakan News Agency “New York Times” called on US President Barack Obama to send a clear message to the Government of Myanmar or formerly known as Burma, and end persecution of Rohingya Muslims. On the eve of his second visit, which begins on Wednesday, the newspaper President Obama said his first visit to the capital […]