Malaysia no different than Myanmar for rejecting refugees, Rohingya rep says
Arakan News Agency Malaysia is no different from Myanmar for refusing to accept refugees seeking protection from persecution, a local Rohingya representative here has said. In an emotional phone interview, Myanmar Ethnic Rohingya Human Rights Organisation Malaysia (Merhrom) president Zafar Ahmad Abdul Ghani said that as Asean chairman, Malaysia must help save the Rohingya who […]
Malaysia Kicks Off Talks For A Solution To Rohingya, Bangladeshi Migrant Crisis
Arakan News Agency High-level talks in Malaysia kicked off Sunday to address the migrant crisis that has surged at sea in Southeast Asia. The Malaysian and Bangladeshi foreign ministers met ahead of talks planned for later in the week aimed at finding a solution to the festering problem that has left thousands from Myanmar and […]
‘Mother and kids killed over food’ on overcrowded boat of Rohingya migrants
Arakan News Agency Saydul Islam, 17, saw a Rohingya mother and her two children killed over food by several Bangladeshi men on their overcrowded boat. His story is just one of dozens shared by more than 670 Rohingya and Bangladeshi survivors who were rescued off Indonesia’s Aceh province and brought to shore last Friday. Saydul […]
Rohingya and our rule-bending arrogance
Arakan News Agency In 2003 Bill Clinton, in a speech at Yale University, suggested that American foreign policy should try “to create a world with rules and partnerships and habits of behaviour that we would like to live in when we’re no longer the military, political and economic superpower in the world”. It is a […]
Thailand plans ‘transit area’ for Rohingya migrants
Arakan News Agency Thailand is preparing to open a “transit area” where Rohingya migrants will be provided with humanitarian assistance, Deputy Prime Minister Prawit Wongsuwon said on Monday. Gen Prawit, who is also defence minister, said this before leaving for the 3rd Naval Area Command in Phuket. He was accompanied by Adm Kraisorn Chansuvanich, the […]
World remains silent on plights of Rohingya Muslims: Analyst
Arakan News Agency In an interview Jahangir Mohammed, the director of the Center for Muslims Affairs, in Manchester, and Carol Gould, author and political commentator from London, to discuss the plight of Rohingya Muslims in Myanmar and the refusal of some countries to accept people from the community. Mohammed says Myanmar’s government is responsible for […]
Rohingya Refugee Crisis Is a Policy Success for President Thein Sein
Arakan News Agency Thousands of Rohingya refugees from Burma lie starving in boats off the coasts of Thailand, Indonesia and Malaysia. Dehydrated and desperate, they are forced to drink their own urine in sight of countries which should be offering them sanctuary. Attention is rightly focussed on these countries for refusing to accept these refugees, […]
Thailand’s handling of Rohingya migrants endorsed by U.N. chief
Arakan News Agency Thailand’s handling of Rohingya migrants was on Sunday given support from UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon, according to a Thai government official. The U.N. chief telephoned Thai Prime Minister Prayut Chan-o-cha to inquire the Thai authorities’ reported efforts to take care of the Muslim migrants who had fled Myanmar’s strife-torn Rakhine state […]
UN says deadly Rohingya emigration will continue unless Myanmar ends discrimination
Arakan News Agency The United Nations rights chief said on Friday said that as long as Myanmar continues discrimination against its Rohingya Muslim minority, the deadly pattern of migration by sea across the Bay of Bengal will continue. “Until the Myanmar government addresses the institutional discrimination against the Rohingya population, including equal access to citizenship, […]
A Plight of Rohingya
Arakan News Agency A migrant who arrived today by boat, part of a group of Rohingya Muslims and Bangladeshis, receives medical assistance at an aid station in Kuala Langsa in Indonesia’s Aceh Province. Nearly 800 “boat people” were brought ashore in Indonesia on Friday, but other vessels crammed with migrants were sent back to sea […]
Rohingya migrants will steal jobs, says Thai PM
Arakan News Agency Thailand’s prime minister warned on Friday that if more Rohingya migrants head to the country’s shores they might steal jobs from Thais. Thousands of Rohingya Muslims from Myanmar are spirited across the Bay of Bengal by human trafficking networks each year, most thought to be heading to Muslim Malaysia. But, like Thailand […]
Najib’s silence on Rohingya tragedy damning
Arakan News Agency MP SPEAKS Has anyone seen the Malaysian prime minister Najib Razak? We have a regional humanitarian crisis, a catastrophe, with thousands of Rohingya refugees adrift at sea and many more facing possible deportation to Burma. And yet we have not heard a whimper from Najib. We understand he is struggling to hold […]
Why are so many Rohingya migrants stranded at sea?
Arakan News Agency The Rohingyas – a distinct Muslim ethnic group who are effectively stateless – have been fleeing Myanmar for decades. But a combination of factors means that they are now stranded in rickety boats in the Andaman sea, causing international alarm. There are believed to be several thousand Myanmar migrants in boats off […]