Rohingya at ‘significant’ risk of human trafficking: US report

20 June 2013

DVB

HANNA HINDSTROM

An ethnic Rohingya woman living in Malaysia, cries during a rally against sectarian violence in Burma (Reuters)

Human trafficking remains a significant problem in both Burma and Thailand, where the stateless Rohingya minority has become particularly vulnerable to exploitation and abuse, a leading US report warned on Wednesday.
The annual trafficking in persons (TIP) report released by the US state department accused the Burmese government of fuelling forced labour and trafficking among the Muslim Rohingya by denying them citizenship and stripping them of basic rights.
More than 20,000 Rohingyas are estimated to have fled on rickety boats from Arakan state in western Burma, since two bouts of ethno-religious clashes with Buddhists last year. Many end up paying hundreds of dollars to “brokers”, who either abandon them en route, or sell them to traffickers.
“There were reports that some Rohingya asylum seekers transiting Thailand en route to Malaysia were sold into forced labor on Thai fishing boats, reportedly with the assistance of Thai military officials,” said the report.
Thailand also regularly deports migrant Rohingyas back to Burma, despite protests from human rights groups, where they may be subject to re-trafficking, often in collusion with local authorities. The TIP report accuses elements in the ethnic rebel group the Democratic Karen Benevolent (formerly Buddhist) Army of participating in the trade of ethnic Rohingyas.
Burmese authorities in Arakan state have also been implicated in fuelling forced labour, sex slavery and abuse. According to the TIP report, military personnel have kidnapped several Rohingya women from the state capital Sittwe and subjected them to sexual slavery on military installations.
Earlier this year, media reports revealed that a growing number of Rohingya women were being sold as unwilling “mail order brides” to Malaysia in order to meet the growing demand for wives among the refugee population.
“As far as the Rohingya are concerned, Burma has greatly increased their vulnerability to trafficking,” Chris Lewa, head of the Arakan Project, an NGO that campaigns for the rights of Rohingyas, told DVB. “Segregation and restriction of movement have curtailed their access to livelihood; state’s persecution and arbitrary arrests have prompted many to flee abroad.“
Nearly 140,000 displaced Rohingya are currently estimated to be living in squalid camps in western Burma, where they are subjected to severe restrictions on their movements, work and family life.
Other ethnic minority populations in Burma were also identified as particularly vulnerable to trafficking and forced labour, especially in conflict-torn border regions, such as Kachin state.
“Military personnel and insurgent militia engage in the unlawful conscription of child soldiers and continue to be the leading perpetrators of forced labor inside the country, particularly in conflict-prone ethnic areas,” said the report, which ranks Burma on its Tier 2 “watch list” for the second year running.
The allegations came on the same day that the International Labour Organization (ILO) decided to lift all remaining sanctions against the former pariah state. Burma moved up from Tier 3 last year, the report’s lowest ranking, in large part due to its efforts to address forced labour in collaboration with the ILO.
Thailand, which was identified as a key destination country for Burmese trafficking victims, remained on the Tier 2 “watch list” for the fourth year running. It comes amid reports that three Burmese nationals were arrested in the Thai border town Mae Sot this week for running a prostitution ring using underage girls.
The report highlights the country’s sex tourism industry as a prominent incentive for the trafficking of women and girls. But labour rights campaigners in Thailand say the report is a “subjective” and “non-evidence” based study, which illustrates how poorly the US understands the sex industry.
Liz Hilton from the sex workers’ rights group, the Empower Foundation, insists that it is the criminalisation of sex work that is to blame.
“Look at New Zealand, where sex work is decriminalised — they’ve had no children in the sex industry, they’ve had no prosecutions for trafficking for nine years, and they’re Tier 1,” she told DVB. “So obviously the decriminalisation of sex work eliminates trafficking.”
Thailand spent US$3.7 million on anti-trafficking activities in 2012, but only assisted 270 victims. Hilton adds that this is a “bigger budget than they spend on climate change” or the women’s empowerment fund. Meanwhile, 350,000 migrants, mostly from Burma, were arrested for illegal entry in 2012, but only 57 were helped.
“[Forced work] is one tiny little tick of the exploitation in Thailand, whether it’s in the sex industry or the fishing industry or whatever,” said Hilton. “What needs to be reformed is the labour conditions in Thailand.”

Indonesian prison riot sparked by rapes of Rohingya inmates

Illegal migrants from Burma stand at the gate of an immigration detention centre in Medan in Indonesia's North Sumatra province on 5 April 2013. (Reuters)

April 10, 2013

Democratic Voice of Burma

Hanna Hindstrom 

A recent riot at an Indonesian detention centre, in which eight Burmese Buddhists were killed by a mob of Muslims, was sparked by the rape and sexual assault of three Rohingya women, a new police investigation has revealed. 

According to a police report obtained by DVB, the Indonesian prison brawl, which broke out on 5 April killing eight Buddhists and injuring 15 Rohingya men, was not caused by an argument over religious violence in Burma as previously reported. 

Instead the report pins the blame on “several incidents” of sexual violence perpetrated by Burmese Buddhists against Rohingya women, including two brutal gang rapes, which the authorities failed to investigate. A third woman was sexually assaulted by two men after taking a bath next to her room at the Belawan detention centre in Medan, Sumatra island. 

Although a Rohingya leader quickly reported the incidents to officers at the detention centre, the perpetrators were “only reprimanded and slapped” on the cheek, according to the police report. 

A gang of eight Buddhists, identified as “illegal fishermen”, then threatened the Rohingyas and “an unequal quarrel broke out”, in which knives, wooden rods and screwdrivers were used by the two groups to attack each other. All five men, implicated in the three cases of rape and sexual assault, were killed in the brawl. 

The new report contradicts previous accounts, which suggested that the Rohingyas launched an attack against the Buddhists after seeing images of recent anti-Muslim violence, which swept through central Burma in late March, claiming over 40 lives. 

It follows two bouts of vicious clashes between Rohingya Muslims and Buddhists Arakanese in western Burma last year, in which over 125,000 people were displaced. 

The Rohingyas detained on Sumatra Island in Indonesia were described by police as “asylum seekers” with “long-standing resentment against Buddhist citizens of Myanmar [Burma] as a result of atrocities against Rohingya people committed by other Myanmar citizens.”

Rohingyas are denied citizenship and basic rights by the Burmese government and are considered one of the world’s most persecuted minorities by the UN. 

Since last year’s violence in western Burma, which primarily targeted Muslim villages, more than 15,000 Rohingyas have fled the country. The refugees, including women and children, often makes the perilous journey by sea on rickety boats, in the hopes of reaching other Muslim countries, such as Indonesia or Malaysia. 

The Burmese government has demanded a full investigation into the violence and called on the Indonesian authorities “to pay special attention” to the protection of its citizens. 

Police forces have named 20 Rohingya asylum seekers as suspects in the violence, including five 16-year-olds and one 15-year-old. According to the Jakarta Post, the suspects are accused of “conducting collective assault and torturing” and face a maximum sentence of 12 years imprisonment if convicted. 

The report also called for an increase in security at Indonesian detention centres, as well as the segregation of Muslims and Buddhists from Burma. 

However questions remain over the future of the remaining Rohingya detainees, who may be returned to Burma unless they are granted asylum in Indonesia or a third country. The police report also reveals that the detention centre was crammed with over twice as many inmates as its capacity allowed. 

The UN Refugee Agency has appealed for calm and urged the Indonesian authorities “to take action to prevent further violence, including moving individuals into community housing as soon as possible”.

This news report is originally published here.