Showing posts with label Rohingya. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Rohingya. Show all posts

Saturday, May 17, 2025

UN agency, Rohingya refugees allege Indian authorities cast dozens of them into the sea near Myanmar

AP
By SHEIKH SAALIQ and PIYUSH NAGPAL
May 17, 2025 

 The Office of the U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights, in a statement on Thursday, said at least 40 Rohingya refugees were detained in New Delhi and cast into the sea by the Indian navy near the maritime border with Myanmar. The refugees — including children, women and older people — swam ashore, but their whereabouts in Myanmar remain unknown, the agency said.

A Rohingya refugee who has not been identified due to safety concerns, talks to The Associated Press in New Delhi, India, about how his family was deported to an island in Myanmar, Friday, May 16, 2025. (AP Photo/Manish Swarup)

The Office of the U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights, in a statement on Thursday, said at least 40 Rohingya refugees were detained in New Delhi and cast into the sea by the Indian navy near the maritime border with Myanmar. The refugees — including children, women and older people — swam ashore, but their whereabouts in Myanmar remain unknown, the agency said.

Five Rohingya refugees on Friday confirmed to the Associated Press that their family members were part of the group that were detained by Indian authorities on May 6. The group, including 15 Christians, were flown in an aircraft and later cast into the sea by Indian navy authorities on May 8, they said.

Dilawar Hussain, a lawyer representing the refugees, said the families have filed a petition in India’s top court, urging the Indian government to bring them back to New Delhi.

India’s navy and foreign ministry declined to comment.

In its statement Thursday, the rights office said it had appointed a U.N. expert to probe into what it called were “unconscionable, unacceptable acts.” The U.N. agency urged the Indian government to refrain from “inhumane and life-threatening treatment of Rohingya refugees, including their repatriation into perilous conditions in Myanmar.”

Tom Andrews, U.N. Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in Myanmar, called the incident “blatant disregard for the lives and safety of those who require international protection” and “nothing short of outrageous.”

“Such cruel actions would be an affront to human decency and represent a serious violation of the principle of non-refoulment, a fundamental tenet of international law that prohibits states from returning individuals to a territory where they face threats to their lives or freedom,” Andrews said in the statement.

India does not have a national policy or a law to deal with refugees. It is also not party to the 1951 Refugee Convention or its 1967 Protocol. But hundreds of thousands of Muslim Rohingya refugees have fled persecution in Myanmar after suffering oppression in Myanmar’s Rakhine state, where officials have been accused of genocide.

According to Refugees International, of the estimated 40,000 Rohingya refugees living in India at least 22,500 are registered with the UNHCR. Many of them live in squalid camps in various Indian states.
A Rohingya refugee who has not been identified due to safety concerns, talks to The Associated Press in New Delhi, India, about how his family was deported to an island in Myanmar, Friday, May 16, 2025. (AP Photo/Manish Swarup)

One of those refugees, who has not been identified by AP due to safety concerns, said his brother was among those returned. He said he received a call from his brother on May 8 after he managed to borrow a phone from a local fisherman after making landfall on an island in Myanmar.

He told him Indian authorities removed their restraints and blindfolds, gave them life jackets and told them swim to an island in Myanmar territory.

“My parents were taken from me and thrown into the waters,“ said the man, whose two brothers, parents and a sister-in-law were part of the group, according to his brother. ”It would be enough if I am reunited with my parents. I just want my parents, nothing else.”

Thet Swe, a spokesman for Myanmar’s military-led government, did not immediately respond to an email asking for comment.

The refugee in India said most of those returned were registered with the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees in India and were detained by Indian authorities under the pretext of collecting their biometric data. He also shared with the AP pictures of his brother while he was detained by Indian authorities and taken in a police vehicle.

AP also reviewed a recording of another phone call made by a refugee to his brother in New Delhi. The man who made the call is heard saying some people from the group were beaten by Indian navy authorities.

It was not possible to independently verify these claims.
A Rohingya refugee who has not been identified due to safety concerns, shows his conversation details on WhatsApp with his family members in Myanmar as he talks to The Associated Press in New Delhi, India, Friday, May 16, 2025. (AP Photo/Manish Swarup)

In recent years, Rohingya refugees have faced persecution and attacks from India’s Hindu nationalist groups, who have demanded their expulsion from India. Many of them have also been held in various detention centers across India and are viewed as illegal immigrants. Some have been deported to neighboring Bangladesh and Myanmar.

Last year, Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government implemented a controversial citizenship law that critics say discriminates against Muslim migrants, including Rohingyas.

——
Associated Press writers Aijaz Hussain in Srinagar, India, Rajesh Roy in New Delhi and David Rising in Bangkok contributed to this report.

Link : Here

Wednesday, April 2, 2025

17,000 MTs of U.S.-grown food aid arrives to support Rohingya

BBS NEWS
02 Apr 2025,

DHAKA, APRIL 2, 2025 – This week, 17,000 metric tons of vital food aid for Rohingya people arrived in Chattogram.

This food, produced by American farmers, will be delivered through the World Food Programme as part of the United States’ assistance to more than one million Rohingya in critical need, said an US Embassy press release here today.

Saturday, March 15, 2025

A Bleak Future for Rohingya Refugees

THE | DIPLOMAT
By Jannatul Naym Pieal
March 14, 2025



Despite the U.N. secretary-general’s visit to Bangladesh this week, the outlook for Rohingya refugees remains bleak.
Credit: Depositphotos

 
As conflict escalates in Myanmar’s Rakhine State, the plight of Rohingya refugees in Bangladesh remains as dire as ever.

Recent developments – including the Arakan Army’s decision to ban the term “Rohingya” in areas under its control, dwindling food aid for refugees in Bangladesh, and shifting geopolitical stances – are shaping the future of one of the world’s most persecuted communities.

Secretary-General's press encounter on the Rohingya Refugees

United Nations
14 March 2025



This is my yearly Ramadan visit, this time in solidarity with the Rohingya refugees and with the Bangladeshi people [who] so generously host them.

And in this visit, I’ve already heard two clear messages. First, Rohingyas want to go back to Myanmar. It is essential that the international community does everything to make sure that peace is reestablished in Myanmar and that the rights of the Rohingyas are respected, that discrimination and persecution like the one we have witnessed in the past, will end.

Thursday, March 6, 2025

UN to halve Rohingya food aid in Bangladesh amid funding crunch

Aljazeera
6 Mar 2025 

World Food Programme says ‘severe funding shortfalls’ to force cut in monthly food vouchers from $12.50 to $6 per person.

Rohingya refugees in Cox's Bazar, Bangladesh, mark the fifth anniversary of their flight from Myanmar during a military crackdown [File: Rafiqur Rahman/Reuters]


The United Nations has warned that it will be forced to halve rations for about one million Rohingya refugees in Bangladesh from next month due to a lack of funds.

The World Food Programme (WFP) said in a letter on Wednesday that “severe funding shortfalls” are forcing a cut in monthly food vouchers from $12.50 to $6 per person.

Wednesday, February 26, 2025

Repatriation of Muslim Refugees from Bangladesh 1978-79

Repatriation of Muslim Refugees from Bangladesh 1978-79
1. Associated Press (AP) report from Teknaf Road - 5 June 1978
2. United Press International (UPI) report from Dacca - 29 June 1978
3. Text of 'Secret' Burma-Bangladesh Repatriation Agreement 9 July 1978
4. United Press International (UPI) report from Cox's Bazaar - 10 October 1978
5. Richard Wigg: The Times 27 October 1978 - Repatriation camps stay empty
6. Richard Wigg: The Times 31 October 1978 - Barren Ricefields after Muslim Flight
7. British Embassy Report on visit by Bangladeshi Foreign Minister - 6 February 1979
8. The 1978-79 Bangladesh Refugee Relief Operation - Alan Lindquist UNHCR 1979
9. British Embassy report on the reception arrangements - 23 February 1979
10. British High Commissioner Stephen Miles: Dacca Report - 10 April 1979
11. British Ambassador's despatch on the completion of the repatriation - 3 July 1979
12. Extract from Chapter IV of 'Arakan' by Klaus Fleischmann, Hamburg 1981
13. The Muslim population in Arakan - Peter Nicolaus, Senior Repatriation Officer,1995
14. The Repatriation of Refugees after the exoduses of 1978 and 1991: CR Abrar 1995
15. The Legal Statisus of Indians in Contemporary Burma - Robert Taylor ISEAS 2006
16. Unpacking the presumed statelessness of Rohingyas - Nyi Nyi Kyaw 2017

Thursday, February 13, 2025

‘Become American, Work Hard, Love Democracy’: Dreams Dashed by Trump Orders

The New York Times
By Hannah Beech
Reporting from Bangkok
Feb. 12, 2025

President Trump’s moves to pause refugee resettlement, freeze foreign aid and suspend funds to promote democracy have added more chaos to one of the world’s most urgent humanitarian crises.

The world’s largest refugee camp is in Bangladesh, where hundreds of thousands of Rohingya Muslims have sought shelter after fleeing Myanmar. It was built with the help of U.S.A.I.D., an agency paralyzed by the Trump administration.Credit...Reuters

The family of four refugees filled seven suitcases for their new life in America. They packed blankets, tin plates, one blade for clearing the land in their future home and one for chopping meat. They left behind what they were not supposed to bring: slingshots, fish paste, traditional medicines from their native Myanmar.

Tuesday, February 11, 2025

Our hearts beat for US deportees but turn against Rohingyas entering India. That’s hypocrisy

The Print
Karanjeet Kaur

11 February, 2025 

This public sympathy, unprecedented for “illegal” migrants, stems from the knowledge that in a different reality, the deportees’ gamble might have been our own.

Refugees standing in a queue at a refugee camp | Commons

The sight of dozens of crestfallen Indians exiting the ramp of the US military plane that landed in Amritsar last week, cast a pall of gloom over the news cycle. But for me, the defining image of India’s deportation crisis isn’t the 104 Indians bound and handcuffed by US officials—it’s the Punjabi politicians who voluntarily appeared in chains outside Parliament. 

Saturday, January 25, 2025

Accountability for crimes committed against Rohingya is critical for future peace, says Head of the Myanmar Mechanism during Bangladesh visit

 INDEPENDENT INVESTIGATIVE
MECHANISM FOR MYANMAR


Dhaka/Geneva, 24 January 2025 – Pursuing justice for crimes committed against the Rohingya is critical for their future return to their homes in Rakhine State in Myanmar and future peace, said Nicholas Koumjian, the Head of the Independent Investigative Mechanism for Myanmar, on the conclusion of his five-day official visit to Bangladesh.

During his visit, Koumjian met with high-level government officials, as well as more than 100 Rohingya activists and representatives of community organizations from the refugee camps in Cox’s Bazar.

Thursday, January 23, 2025

‘We’ve lost all hope’: Rohingya trapped as Bangladesh closes Myanmar border

The Guardian
Sarah Aziz
Wed 22 Jan 2025 

Muslim refugees fleeing persecution in Myanmar are being detained and forced back by Bangladeshi border guards 

Rohingya refugees crossing into Bangladesh in 2017. Nearly a million of the Muslim minority have fled from Myanmar and live in squalid camps in Bangladesh. Photograph: Zuma/Alamy

In the dim light of his home in Arakan, Myanmar, Mohammed is talking above the wailing of his youngest child. All three of his children are hungry, he says. The 32-year-old Rohingya man’s parents, leaning together against the wall, are just visible as Mohammed speaks on the video call.

Tuesday, January 7, 2025

Joint Press Statement on the Human Rights and Humanitarian Situation in Myanmar

U.S Department of State

Media Note
Office of the Spokesperson
January 6, 2025


The text of the following joint statement was released by the High Representative on behalf of the European Union and the Governments of the United States, Australia, Canada, New Zealand, Norway, the Republic of Korea, Switzerland, Timor-Leste, and the United Kingdom to address the human rights and humanitarian crisis in Myanmar.

Begin text:

Monday, January 6, 2025

Over 200 Rohingya arrive in Indonesia over weekend, official says | REUTERS Reuters

REUTERS
Monday, 06 January 2025

More than 200 Rohingya people arrived by boat in Indonesia’s Aceh province. The mainly Muslim Rohingya have fled violence in Buddhist-majority Myanmar and constitute the world’s largest stateless population. 
 
Link : Here

Rohingyas’ return to Myanmar uncertain, despite rebel control of Bangladesh border

mizzima
January 6, 2025 

RFA

The dream of returning home to Myanmar remains uncertain for hundreds of thousands of Rohingya who fled to Bangladesh despite rebel control of the border, members of the ethnic group said Friday.

Saturday, January 4, 2025

Malaysia ramps up patrols after Myanmar migrant boat landings on Langkawi

malay mail 
Friday, 03 Jan 2025 8:00 PM MYT
Rohingya refugees waiting to be rescued as their vessel approaches Aceh last year. — AFP pic


KUALA LUMPUR, Jan 3 — Malaysia’s coastguard said on Friday it was doubling patrols in its waters to locate boats carrying undocumented Myanmar migrants, after almost 200 were detained on an island in the northwestern Malaysian state of Kedah.

MMEA Intensifies Patrols To Intercept Myanmar Immigrant Boats Heading Towards Langkawi

BERNAMA
03/01/2025 



ALOR SETAR, Jan 3 (Bernama) -- The Malaysian Maritime Enforcement Agency (MMEA) is intensifying patrols to intercept two boats carrying Myanmar illegal immigrants reported to be heading towards Langkawi.

Cops arrest 196 Rohingya at Langkawi beach

Bernama
Published: Jan 3, 2025


Credit: PDRM

ALOR SETAR, Jan 3 (Bernama) -- Police have confirmed having arrested 196 ethnic Rohingya who landed at Teluk Yu Beach in Langkawi early today.

Langkawi police chief ACP Shariman Ashari said the authorities received information from a member of the public at around 3.25 am, saying that a group of foreigners had landed at the beach.

Thursday, January 2, 2025

Threadbare facilities, high mortality, cats in the corridors: the realities of life for new Rohingya mothers in Cox’s Bazar

The Guardian
Rebecca Root in Cox's Bazar
Thu 2 Jan 2025

Midwife Sumana Akter checks on a newborn baby inside the Friendship hospital in a Rohingya refugee camp in Cox’s Bazar. In some areas of the camp, maternal mortality is 44% higher than the Bangladesh average Photographs by Thomas Cristofoletti/Ruom for the Guardian

In the world’s largest refugee site, a lack of healthcare coupled with rising gang violence makes the journey to motherhood a perilous one

It is mid-afternoon on a Wednesday and Toyoba Begum, 37, is sitting upright at the end of her hospital bed, the second in a row of eight. Dressed in a beige tunic and canary yellow trousers, a belly recovery belt clasped around her stomach, she watches her two-day-old daughter sleeping under a fleece blanket.

Sunday, December 29, 2024

Tormentors Change, but Not the Torment

The NewYork Times
By Hannah Beech
Photographs by Adam Ferguson
Reporting from Teknaf, Bangladesh
Dec. 28, 2024 
 
Rohingya refugees Shamshida, 25, left, and Manwara, 19, in their tent in Teknaf, Bangladesh. 

Brutally persecuted for years by the military in Myanmar, the Rohingya ethnic minority has now become the target of one of the junta’s most formidable rivals in the country’s civil war.

Thursday, December 26, 2024

Genocide Emergency: Rohingya in Maungdaw, Myanmar

Genocide Watch
26 December 2024
 

Imagery verified by CNN shows the aftermath of an attack on the western edge of Maungdaw township’s Myo Ma ward.

GENOCIDE EMERGENCY:
MAUNGDAW, RAKHINE STATE, MYANMAR
DECEMBER 2024

Rohingya’s call for justice, equality, peaceful coexistence and inclusive governance in Arakan

J O I N T   S T A T E M E N T

December 23, 2024

 

Rohingya’s call for justice, equality, peaceful coexistence and inclusive governance in Arakan

 

The Arakan Army (AA) has taken control of Maungdaw and Buthidaung Townships in Northern Arakan/Rakhine State. The majority of the remaining 500,000 Rohingya are still living in the territory controlled by the AA. The AA controls the entire border with Bangladesh.

 

During decades of military rule, the people of Arakan State, including the Rohingya, have yearned for freedom. With the Arakan Army now in control of the territory, it bears the responsibility to fulfill that aspiration. We urge the Arakan Army and its political wing, the United League of Arakan, to uphold and respect the rights of the Rohingya and all ethnic and religious minorities in Arakan State.

 

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