WASHINGTON, Feb 7 (OneWorld.net) - Hundreds of Myanmar's persecuted Rohingya people seeking refuge in Thailand are missing since being forcibly expelled to sea by Thai authorities.
An estimated 28,000 Rohingyas live in UNHCR refugee camps in Bangladesh. © Austcare - World Humanitarian Aid (flickr)"Last week the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) voiced strong concern over allegations that the [Thai] Government had intercepted a large number of incoming Rohingya boat people in Thai waters, towed them back out to sea, and left them to die,"
reports the UN News Center. There are more than 200,000 Rohingya refugees in Bangladesh, with another 28,000 living in UNHCR camps, adds the UN.
The Rohingya people are a majority-Muslim ethnic group from the northwest of predominantly Buddhist Myanmar. Although their numbers are estimated at about 800,000, they are not officially recognized by the ruling military junta and denied citizenship, effectively making them stateless. As the targets of decades of persecution, many Rohingyas flee to neighboring countries and fear returning home to Myanmar. One refugee, found by the Indonesian authorities floating at sea with nearly 200 other Rohingyas, told the Reuters news agency: "If we go back, we'll definitely be killed."
Myanmar's military junta has been widely criticized by human rights advocates for its long history of human rights abuses, including discrimination against minority groups, violent repression of rights activists, and unlawful imprisonment and abuse of political opponents. A recent report by international monitor Human Rights Watch documents the forced labor, arbitrary arrests and detention, torture, religious repression, and other restrictions on fundamental freedoms imposed on the ethnic Chin group in Myanmar's western Chin state.
WASHINGTON, Feb 7 (OneWorld.net) - Hundreds of Myanmar's persecuted Rohingya people seeking refuge in Thailand are missing since being forcibly expelled to sea by Thai authorities.
An estimated 28,000 Rohingyas live in UNHCR refugee camps in Bangladesh. © Austcare - World Humanitarian Aid (flickr)"Last week the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) voiced strong concern over allegations that the [Thai] Government had intercepted a large number of incoming Rohingya boat people in Thai waters, towed them back out to sea, and left them to die,"
reports the UN News Center. There are more than 200,000 Rohingya refugees in Bangladesh, with another 28,000 living in UNHCR camps, adds the UN.
The Rohingya people are a majority-Muslim ethnic group from the northwest of predominantly Buddhist Myanmar. Although their numbers are estimated at about 800,000, they are not officially recognized by the ruling military junta and denied citizenship, effectively making them stateless. As the targets of decades of persecution, many Rohingyas flee to neighboring countries and fear returning home to Myanmar. One refugee, found by the Indonesian authorities floating at sea with nearly 200 other Rohingyas, told the Reuters news agency: "If we go back, we'll definitely be killed."
Myanmar's military junta has been widely criticized by human rights advocates for its long history of human rights abuses, including discrimination against minority groups, violent repression of rights activists, and unlawful imprisonment and abuse of political opponents. A recent report by international monitor Human Rights Watch documents the forced labor, arbitrary arrests and detention, torture, religious repression, and other restrictions on fundamental freedoms imposed on the ethnic Chin group in Myanmar's western Chin state.
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