Asean and Indonesia Must Help With Rohingya Issue

Rohingya refugees are seen in their room at the Training Center House, Krueng Raya, Aceh on April 10, 2013. The predominantly Muslim Rohingya are an ethnic minority group from Rakhine State in western Myanmar who were the target of communal violence last year. A Myanmar law passed in 1982 denies them nationality. (EPA Photo/Hotli Simanjuntak) 

April 14, 2013

Jakarta Globe

Ezra Sihite, Rizky Amelia & Markus Junianto Sihaloho

As ethnic and religious conflict rages against the Rohingya ethnic group in Myanmar, Indonesia has found itself taking on the role of both mediator and refuge country.

Aleksius Jemadu, dean of Pelita Harapan University (UPH), said that this has now become a cross-border problem that includes Indonesia and must be addressed by Asean. 

Aleksius added that the conflict involving the Muslim-majority Rohingya ethnicity in Buddhist-majority Myanmar is a sensitive issue, but Asean must take the lead in solving it. According to the Asean Charter, an important pillar of the Asean community is its inclusiveness of all religions and ethnicities, he added. 

“If Indonesia wishes to become a leader in this instance, it must take the initiative,” he said on Saturday. 

Since the influx of asylum-seekers has affected Indonesia, this is now a cross-border issue, Aleksius argued. 

He added that the killing of asylum-seekers detained in Medan last week was an example of what would continue to happen if Indonesia remains silent on the issue. 

The head of the Asean Inter-Parliamentary Myanmar Caucus, Eva Kusuma Sundari, said on Friday that Indonesia was committed to ending ethnic conflict in Myanmar. 

“Indonesia is definitely active in ensuring that reform in Myanmar is progressing well,” Eva said. “Asean is Indonesia’s baby, and Indonesian leadership is significant in Asean.” 

She explained that the official policy of the Myanmar government is that the Rohingya are not considered citizens by the Burmese government, and instead are regarded as a colonial import. For that reason, the Rohingya are considered stateless, do not have national identity cards and are treated as immigrants that someday must be returned to Bangladesh. 

That problem has been increased by the fact that the Rohingya are also mainly Muslim in a Buddhist majority country. “That became an easy trigger to mobilize hate,” Eva added. 

Indonesia has become a layover country for asylum-seekers escaping Myanmar, but the country itself does not have the adequate legal framework to deal with the new arrivals. 

Ali Akbar Tanjung from the Human Rights Working Group gave the example that if an asylum-seeker enters Indonesian waters, they must be accompanied to shore, given a health check and humanitarian support. Furthermore, the government will help to determine their refugee status. However, Indonesia does not yet have set rules for the handling of asylum-seekers, he said. 

Ali said that the matter of asylum-seekers is dealt with only briefly in the Immigration Law and in the regulations for the Directorate General of Immigration. “What Indonesia needs to do is set some ground rules [about] how asylum seekers are to be handled once they are in Indonesia,” Ali said on Friday. 

The regulations, Ali said, can be coordinated with the UNHCR, the International Organization for Migration to ensure that the rights of asylum-seekers and refugees are met, such as the right to go to school. 

Most important is the issue of resettlement. Until now, asylum-seekers and refugees are held in Indonesia in immigration detention centers meant for foreigners who have committed a criminal offense in relation to immigration laws. 

Aside from the need for laws governing the handling of refugees, Indonesia also needs to communicate with nations where they aim to be resettled. For example, there are many refugees who have already received refugee status from the UNHCR, but have yet to be relocated to a third country. They can be waiting for years. 

“Our position is that we cannot remain silent here. Indonesia is not the destination country. This must be communicated with other nations intended as the resettlement country,” Ali said.

Source:Here

Boat Carrying 121 Rohingya Stranded in North Aceh

 February 27, 2013
Thejakartaglobe
Nurdin Hasan 

Banda Aceh. A boat carrying 121 Burmese from the predominantly Muslim Rohingya ethnic group has been stranded on a shoal off Cot Trueng in North Aceh district, a local official said on Wednesday.

The boat, about 15 meters long and 8 meters wide, ran out of fuel. After drifting for a few days, it got stranded at around 9:30 p.m. on Tuesday, Cot Trueng village head Mukthar said.

"When they were found, they were weak because they say they had not eaten for days," Mukthar told journalists.

Local residents provided them with food and water as well as some second-hand clothes, he said. They were then given temporary shelter at a local mosque, although they remained under the guard of police and immigration personnel.

Mukthar said the boatpeople claimed to have left Myanmar on Jan. 30 bound for Thailand. "About a week ago, they ran out of  fuel and drifted for days before they finally got stranded here," he said.

Albert Delius, the head of the supervisory and enforcement section of the immigration office in Lhokseumawe, said the Burmese numbered 121, including two women and two infants.

He said they were taken on Wednesday morning to a former office of the Immigration Office in Peunteut, some 25 kilometers from Cot Trueng, and were put under quarantine there.

"Immigration officials are currently taking their data, for the moment, just their name and age," he said, adding that many appeared to be mere teenagers.

Albert said some of the Rohingya could communicate in Malay or English.

"We left Myanmar to save ourselves and we want to live in peace," one of the boatpeople identified as Along was quoted by the Kompas online news portal as saying. He also said that eight of the passengers died during the journey.

The new arrivals were the sixth batch of Rohingya to be stranded in Aceh since 2009.

Myanmar Rohingya Asylum Seekers Safe in Thailand, For Now

A group of Rohingya women and children at Khao Lak shelter in southern Thailand. (IRIN Photo/Steve Sandford)

February 03, 2013
Thejakartaglobe

Khao Lak. The future of more than 1,500 recent Rohingya boat arrivals in Thailand is unclear, despite a government reprieve allowing them to stay for another six months.

“Their long-term fate remains uncertain,” Chris Lewa, director of the Arakan Project, an advocacy group for the Rohingya, told IRIN. “In the short-term, they should not be held in overcrowded IDCs [immigration detention centers] and police cells. Alternatives to detention have to be found such as open facilities under regulated conditions where they could at least move around.”

The mainly Muslim Rohingya have long faced persecution in Myanmar, where they are de jure stateless under Burmese law; in Bangladesh most Rohingya refugees are unwelcome and face discrimination.

On 25 January, Thai Foreign Minister Surapong Tovichakchaikul announced that 1,500 Rohingya men, women and children would be allowed to stay in the country for another six months, during which time the authorities would work to find a more viable solution, including the possibility of third country resettlement.

According to the authorities, 1,486 Rohingyas arrived in January and are now in detention, including 264 women and children.

More Rohingyas (108) were rescued from a sinking boat at the Mu Ko Surin Marine National Park in Phangnaga Province on 28 January, and another 205 were intercepted south of the resort island of Phuket on 29 January, say activists.

Emergency medical staff have been on stand-by aiding the new arrivals in Khao Lak, Phangnaga Province, southern Thailand.

“Many of the survivors are suffering from severe malnutrition after drinking salty sea water which causes anemia, scabies and stomach parasites,” said Wanida Nacharung of the Phangnaga shelter in Takua Pa District, where 82 children and 24 women are now staying.

In recent years, boatloads of mostly male Rohingyas from Bangladesh and Myanmar have migrated by boat down the Andaman coast in the hope of reaching predominately Muslim Malaysia and finding work.

But this year there has been an increasing number of women and children accompanying the men.

According to the UN, some 115,000 people are displaced in Myanmar’s Rakhine State following inter-communal violence in June and October 2012, in which thousands of homes and buildings were burned or destroyed and dozens of people killed. About 85 percent of the displaced are in and around Sittwe.

Critics say that sending the Rohingya back to Myanmar — as has been Thai policy in the past — would be a mistake, and they call on the authorities to improve conditions inside the detention centers.

“We would like to discuss about non-refoulement and the long-term treatment of the Rohingya in Thailand’s detention centers because in the past, we detained them for so long in confined quarters some of them died. We must learn from the past,” said Kessarin Tiawsakul, an investigating officer from National Human Rights Commission of Thailand.

Tiawsakul realizes that some of the arrivals may actually be Bangladeshi labor migrants. He said a proper identification process needs be implemented to provide a more accurate profile of each case.

More to come?

Large numbers of boats have already sailed and are expected to continue to sail from the Bangladesh and Myanmar border area, Sittwe and other locations in Rakhine State, according to Lewa.

Recently arrived Areecha, 40, from Sittwe, said she had no option but to board a boat after the Burmese military shot her two sons and their house was torched in June.

“There was no water on the boat and we were desperate. Some people passed out. Others vomited. I want to die here. I don’t want to go back,” she said.

More than 900 Rohingya men are now being detained in 10 police stations and two IDCs in Songkhla Province, southern Thailand.

“The immediate priority is to make sure their humanitarian needs are addressed. The local authorities and community in Songkhla have been very generous with their assistance, but there need to be more sustainable ways to accommodate these groups,” said Vivian Tan, a spokeswoman for the UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR).

“There are likely to be different profiles within these groups, including people who may need international protection, vulnerable individuals like unaccompanied children, and possibly people seeking economic opportunities elsewhere. Different groups will need different solutions,” she said.

“The Rohingya should have a right to apply for asylum and have the right to go through a full refugee status determination process overseen by the UNHCR with the Thai authorities,” said Phil Robertson, deputy director for Human Rights Watch in Asia. “If they are found to be refugees they should be provided with all entailed in terms of protection, not just temporarily but over the long term if needed.”

IRIN

13,000 Boat People Flee Myanmar, Bangladesh: UN

Mohammad Johar, 32, an undocumented Rohingya refugee in Bangladesh,
is plotting his escape to Malaysia via
a perilous boat journey across rough seas. (IRIN Photo/Maher Sattar)

January 04, 2013

The JakartaGlobe

Yangon. About 13,000 boat people, including many stateless Rohingya Muslims, fled Myanmar and neighboring Bangladesh in 2012 with hundreds dying during the perilous sea voyage, the UN said Friday.

A wave of deadly sectarian violence in Myanmar’s western state of Rakhine has triggered an exodus of refugees, mostly heading for Malaysia.

“We know of at least 485 people who’ve drowned or are lost at sea,” said Vivian Tan, spokeswoman for the UN refugee agency, adding the real death toll was probably far higher.

“These numbers are very worrying,” Tan said.

“The fact that even women and children are increasingly risking this journey shows the growing sense of desperation among the Rohingya in Myanmar and Bangladesh,” she added.

More than 10,000 people have attempted the sea voyage since October 2012 -- a sharp increase on last season’s departures, according to the Arakan Project, which lobbies for the rights of the Rohingya, considered by the UN to be one of the most persecuted minority groups on the planet.

“It’s already more than the previous boat season, which itself was the most we’d seen,” with more than 8,000 people making the journey, according to Arakan Project director Chris Lewa.

She said the estimate does not include boats that left the Rakhine state capital Sittwe, where tens of thousands of Rohingya are living in camps, as her NGO is not able to monitor those departures.

October is the end of the monsoon season and traditionally marks the start of an annual wave of migration by people trying to reach Malaysia from the Bay of Bengal — often on rickety wooden boats.

The latest exodus shows “the urgent need for countries in the region to respond to this humanitarian crisis by keeping their doors open to people in need of international protection from Myanmar”, the UN’s Tan said.

Myanmar views the roughly 800,000 Rohingya in Rakhine as illegal Bangladeshi immigrants and denies them citizenship. Thousands more live in squalid refugee camps across the border in Bangladesh.

Malaysia has become the sole hope for many Rohingya refugees, after Bangladesh closed its shared border to them and Thailand as well as Singapore refused to provide asylum to members of the Muslim-minority group.

Kuala Lumpur expressed concern at the influx of refugees, saying Malaysia’s patience was being tested.

“There is the humanitarian aspect,” Malaysian Foreign Minister Anifah Aman told AFP on Friday, citing the recent rescue of 40 shipwrecked Rohingya who were turned away by Singapore.

“But we cannot allow Malaysia to become a destination of choice,” he added, noting that the country was already sheltering some 80,000 Rohingya.

About 500 Myanmar boat people swam to shore in Malaysia last weekend after a 15-day sea journey, according to police there. Another died after being hit by a boat propeller when he jumped into the sea.

Agence-Presse France