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.

PM Prayuth calls to expedite probe, provide aid for Rohingyas stranded in Satun

FMT
Bernama
June 13, 2019

A Rohingya woman and her baby are detained in a police station in Rawi Island, Thailand after they were found on a fishing boat bound for Malaysia. (Reuters pic)

BANGKOK:Thailand prime minister General Prayuth Chan o-cha has instructed relevant authorities to expedite investigations on a group of 65 Rohingyas stranded at Rawi Island off the coast of Satun in southern Thailand on Tuesday. 

Fishing boat carrying 64 Rohingya Muslims found shipwrecked on Thai island

Evening Standard
Bonnie Christian
11/06/2019

A fishing boat which according to officials was smuggling Rohingya refugees is seen stranded at Rawi island. ( REUTERS )  

A fishing boat carrying 64 Rohingya Muslim refugees has been found beached on an island in southern Thailand, officials have said.

The chief of Tarutao National Marine Park, Kanjanapan Kamhaeng, said a boat carrying the Rohingya - 28 men, 31, women and five children - was discovered on Tuesday morning.

ASEAN wants to create ‘safe zones’ for Rohingya.

AA

Anadolu Agency

Md. Kamruzzaman |04.04.2019

Regional organization wants to create welcome environment in Myanmar where Rohingya might feel safe to go back, says FM

DHAKA, Bangladesh 

The Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) wants to play a leading role in the repatriation of Rohingya refugees living in Bangladesh, a minister said late Wednesday.

“Thailand is the current chair of ASEAN. They are willing to take a leading role in the Rohingya repatriation process,” Bangladeshi Foreign Minister AK Abdul Momen said at a press briefing following a meeting with his Thai counterpart Don Pramudwinai in Dhaka, local media reported.

Human Traffickers Accused of 'Crimes Against Humanity' in Thailand and Malaysia

TIME
By Amy Gunia
Updated: March 28, 2019

 

Roshid Alam holds photograph of his son, Mohammad Faisal, who was only 14 when he and 170 other Rohingya got on a boat in 2012 bound for Malaysia in this photo in Shamlapur, Bangladesh on July, 4. 2015.
Shazia Rahman—Getty Images

Human rights experts say a transnational criminal syndicate committed crimes against humanity in trafficking Rohingya Muslims who fled violence and persecution in Myanmar, as well as Bangladeshi nationals trying to reach Malaysia.

Traffickers allegedly murdered, enslaved, imprisoned, tortured, raped, starved, and forced displacement of their victims between 2012 to 2015, according to a joint investigation by the Human Rights Commission of Malaysia (SUHAKAM) and Bangkok-based rights group Fortify Rights.

Traffickers committed crimes against humanity by enslaving and killing Rohingya, say rights groups.

The Telegraph
 27 MARCH 2019 •

By Nicola Smith
 

Thousands of Rohingya were crammed onto dangerous boats by traffickers CREDIT: ADIB CHOWDHURY/AFP

H

uman trafficking gangs are guilty of crimes against humanity for their brutal treatment of vulnerable Rohingya refugees trying to flee to Thailand and Malaysia, say human rights groups who released a harrowing new investigation on Wednesday. 

Asean Rakhine approach: Slow but sure

Bangkok Post

19 Feb 2019 

Myanmar's de facto leader Aung San Suu Kyi has discussed Rakhine state affairs with Prime Minister Prayut Chan-o-cha and other Asean leaders including, amidst signs of slow Asean progress. (Photo provided)

By October 2012, an exodus of refugees from Myanmar's Rakhine state had dominated global headlines throughout the year. Asean was under heavy pressure from the international community to do something about it.

Asean hobbles itself

 

29.01.2019 , OPINION

Thailand's first test as this year's Asean chair occurred two weeks ago in Chiang Mai. It was not a resounding success. At the 10-nation group's annual retreat of foreign ministers, the Rohingya issue was at the top of the agenda. But what the participants had agreed upon -- a spirited discussion -- quickly petered out. Now, the issue has been once again overtaken by the United Nations.

ASEAN meet rocks no boats on Rakhine, South China Sea.

THE MYANMAR NEWS
AP| 21 JAN 2019

 

 

 

Foreign ministers of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations on Friday hewed to the group’s practice of reaching the least provocative consensus possible in discussions of such divisive issues as Myanmar’s Rakhine crisis and China’s territorial claims in the South China Sea.

Foreign Ministry continues ban on UN Special Rapporteur Lee.

NYAN LYNN AUNG 15 JAN 2019,

THE government said it would not rescind its ban on UN Special Rapporteur Yanghee Lee from entering Myanmar, despite her recent request, a Foreign Ministry official said Monday.

Surakiart urges Thai pressure to fix Rohingya crisis

9 Jan 2019

Former Thai foreign minister and former president of the Asian Peace and Reconciliation Council Surakiart Sathirathai urged Thailand to use the opportunity as Asean chair to persuade Nay Pyi Taw to develop a roadmap to ease the Rohingya crisis in Rakhine state. 

Thai kingpin jailed for 35 years for Rohingya human-trafficking ( South China Morning Post )

 

PUBLISHED : Thursday, 01 September, 2016

A Thai man accused of masterminding the smuggling and trafficking of Rohingya migrants fleeing Myanmar has been jailed for 35 years, a court said on Thursday.

Southern Thailand has long been known as a nexus for lucrative smuggling networks through which persecuted Rohingya Muslims in Buddhist-majority Myanmar, and Bangladeshi economic migrants, pass on their way to Malaysia.

Thai court sentences man to 35 years in Rohingya trafficking case ( Reuters )

REUTERS

by Alisa Tang | @alisatang 

Thomson Reuters Foundation
Wednesday, 31 August 2016

Rohingya migrant Muhammad Solim, 20, sits in a house in Nakhon Si Thammarat province, Thailand, in this April 28, 2015 file photo. Muhammad Solim, a Rohingya previously living as a refugee in Bangladesh, said he suffers from the effects of malnutrition after spending nearly three months at sea and 90 days in a jungle camp before he was ransomed for the equivalent of US$2,240, paid in baht and ringgit. REUTERS/Aubrey Belford.

 

 The high-profile case led to the discovery of jungle camps, mass graves and an international trafficking ring By Alisa Tang

Reporters face jail over Rohingya report (AJ )

Reporters face jail over Rohingya report (Click Here )

Thailand's navy has accused journalists of defamation after a report alleged it helped human traffickers.

by Shaikh Azizur Rahman
2 Jan 2014

( 01.08.2011 ) Rohingya Documentry (Video)

Uploaded on Aug 1, 2011

My Rohingya Documentary, A First Documentary by Thananuch Sanguansak,a woman journalist from Thailand.