Thailand Offers Persecuted Rohingya Little Hope

HUMAN RIGHTS WATCH

Sunai Phasuk Senior Researcher,

Asia Division SunaiBKK


Prime Minister’s Racist Comments Reflect Inhumane Asylum Seeker Policy

Rohingya refugees sit behind bars at a police station in Satun province, southern Thailand on Wednesday, June 12, 2019. © 2019 AP Photo/Sumeth Panpetch 

Thai Prime Minister Gen. Prayuth Chan-ocha’s racist slurs directed at the Rohingya are bad enough. But they are made even worse because they reflect the Thai government’s cruel policy toward Rohingya asylum seekers who take perilous journeys to escape persecution and serious abuses in Myanmar’s Rakhine State.

Myanmar: UN threatens to withdraw aid over 'policy of apartheid' against Rohingya

The Guardian
Mon 17 Jun 2019

Exclusive: Body says it will withhold support ‘beyond life-saving assistance’ in internally displaced persons camps deemed “closed” by the Myanmar government

The UN has had a presence in internally displaced persons camps in Myanmar’s Rakhine state since 2012. Photograph: Christophe Archambault/AFP/Getty Images

The United Nations in Myanmar has warned it will withdraw support in Rakhine state to avoid complicity in a government “policy of apartheid” for Rohingya Muslims.

A letter seen by the Guardian, sent from UN resident coordinator, Knut Ostby, to the Myanmar government, relayed a decision by the UN and its humanitarian partners to withhold support “beyond life-saving assistance” in internally displaced persons (IDP) camps deemed “closed” by the government, unless fundamental changes occur.