By MOE MYINT
YANGON – More than 100 Rohingya refugees had a narrow
escape in the Bay of Bengal on Monday as their damaged vessel drifted ashore in
northern Rakhine State’s Rathedaung Township. Some of those on board said the
vessel had been bound for Malaysia, but it remained unclear Tuesday whether
their journey had begun in Rakhine or a refugee camp in Bangladesh.
The statement referred to the stranded passengers simply
as “Islam believers”, avoiding the terms “Bengali” — the name used by many in
Myanmar to refer to Muslims from northern Rakhine State, seeing them as
immigrants from neighboring Bangladesh who arrived during British rule — and
“Rohingya” (the term used by the community itself).
Some of them said they had departed from a refugee camp
in Bangladesh. About 700,000 Rohingya refugees are currently sheltering in
camps there after being driven out by Myanmar military clearance operations
against the Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army (ARSA), which staged serial attacks
on government security outposts in August 2017.
The Irrawaddy
12 June 2018
According to a statement from the government’s
Information Committee, local authorities were informed in the early hours of
Monday that 104 people were sheltering on a stretch of beach between Aung Bala
Chaung Wa village and Don Piek village near southern Maungdaw Township. The
local officials discovered a 40-ft-long, 20-ft-high boat along with 60 female
and 44 male passengers. According to passengers, the hull of the boat cracked
as the vessel was buffeted by strong winds. The boat eventually drifted ashore
in Rathedaung.
Read more in Myanmar's Govt Information Committee: https://lnkd.in/gZFiQx6
Authorities transported the refugees in four vehicles to
Nga Khu Ya refugee reception camp in northern Maungdaw about 85 km from Don
Piek village in Rathedaung Township in order to verify the group’s origins.
U San Thein, a resident of Ahngu Maw village in
Rathedaung Township who had been to the site where the boat made land, told The
Irrawaddy that authorities initially discovered 65 people, and found the rest
later in several groups at different locations. According to him, the group
comprised 10 children, 35 men and 56 women — three fewer than the count later
provided by officials. Some reportedly said they had been en route to Malaysia
for five days, but passengers gave conflicting statements as to the vessel’s
point of departure.
As their account could not be verified, it remains
unclear whether all of the passengers left from the same location in
Bangladesh, or if in fact they are all from Rathedaung and were attempting to leave
the strife-torn zone for a fresh start in another country. Travel by Rohingya
Muslims is heavily restricted both in and outside Rakhine. Rohingya are
occasionally arrested by police for attempting to travel to Yangon without the
necessary documents from the Immigration Department.
According to the Information Committee’s statement, in
May 2015 authorities located and assisted 228 Bangladeshi boat people in
southern Maungdaw before transferring them to the custody of Bangladeshi
authorities. That same month, authorities discovered 743 boat people in
Irrawaddy Division’s Pyar Pon Township. After identifying them as Bangladeshi
nationals with the help of the Bangladesh Embassy, it repatriated them through
official channels.
U Ko Ko Thaw, an immigration official in northern
Maungdaw’s Taungpyo sub-township who is leading the process of registering
displaced people, declined to answer specific questions when contacted via
telephone by The Irrawaddy, saying the case is being handled by officials at
the Nga Khu Ya reception camp.
Myanmar and Bangladesh signed a refugee reparation
agreement in November 2017 but as of Tuesday not a single refugee had been
transferred to Maungdaw reception camp through official channels. A small
number of people have attempted to return from the Bangladesh camps to the
Maungdaw border without authorization, leading to the arrest of 62 returnees by
local authorities. Of these, President U Myint Myint has pardoned 58 and four
have had the charges against them dropped. This group was sent to the refugee
reception camp for registration. A few days after their return, about 10 of
them fled the camp. Authorities believe they returned to their place of origin.
To accelerate the return of refugees from Bangladesh, the
Myanmar government recently signed a Memorandum of Understanding with two UN
agencies, the United Nations Development Program (UNDP) and the Office of the
United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR). The MoU concluded a
negotiation process that began in February. Moreover, the government last week
announced plans to establish a credible investigation team including one
high-profile international member and two Myanmar nationals to look into
alleged human rights violations in northern Rakhine State linked to both ARSA
and members of the security forces.