'Myanmar Muslims face persecution'

Fri Feb 25, 2011

Waves of ethnic Muslims have attempted to flee by boats in the face of systematic oppression by the Myanmar government since the beginning of this year, a report says.

Known as the Rohingya, they have been given the label of one of the most persecuted people in the world, a Press TV correspondent reported.

The government of Myanmar refuses to recognize them. They say the Rohingya are not native and classify them as illegal migrants, although they have lived in Myanmar for generations.

Communities living in the Rakhine state of Myanmar are reportedly made to work against their will, often evicted from their homes and severely restricted in movement, ownership and opportunities.

“Whether one is an educated Rohingya with a proper job, or one is an illegal migrant or at the lower end if the economic strata, it doesn't matter, the discrimination is across the board,” Benjamin Zawacki of Amnesty International told Press TV.

Those attempting to escape face discrimination and inhumane treatment by immigration authorities of receiving countries.

Recent groups of refugees have drifted ashore to India, Indonesia and Thailand.

“There were a number of Rohingyas, ninety-one in fact, who washed up on the Nicobar Islands in India, claiming to have been put out to sea by Thai authorities, in a boat that was unseaworthy, without an engine,” Zawacki stated.

“But at the same time, the Thai authorities are claiming that the same number of people, ninety-one Rohingyas, were returned, repatriated from Thailand to Myanmar,” Zawacki added.

An additional 129 men claiming to be Rohingya washed ashore to Indonesia in February.

In neighboring Bangladesh, they mostly end up as illegal migrants with over 200,000 such registered cases. In Thailand, they experience poor conditions with limited opportunities and lack of recognition as refugees.

Leading human rights groups have called upon governments receiving the refugees to grant them full rights towards the refugee verification process.

Source: PressTV.
Link: http://www.presstv.ir/detail/166918.html.