YANGON: A growing sense of desperation is fuelling a mass exodus of Rohingya Muslims from western Myanmar, with at least 8,000 members of the long-persecuted minority fleeing by boat in the last two weeks, according to residents and a leading expert.
Chris Lewa, director of the non-profit Rohingya advocacy group Arakan Project, said an average of 900 people per day have been piling into cargo ships parked off Rakhine state since October 15.
Myanmar, a predominantly Buddhist nation of 50 million, has an estimated 1.3 million Rohingya. Though many of their families arrived from neighbouring Bangladesh generations ago, almost all have been denied Myanmar citizenship. In the last two years, attacks by Buddhist mobs have left hundreds dead and 140,000 trapped in camps, and have undermined Myanmar’s transition to democracy from decades of oppressive military rule.
Lewa said on Friday that some Rohingya families have been told the huge cargo ships already have started arriving in neighbouring Thailand, where Rohingya face deportation or fall victim to human trafficking.
The vast majority live in the northern tip of Rakhine state, where an aggressive campaign by authorities in recent months to register family members and officially categorise them as “Bengalis” — implying they are illegal migrants from neighbouring Bangladesh — has aggravated their situation.
According to Rohingya villagers contacted by AP, some were confined to their villages for weeks at a time for refusing to take part in the “verification” process” others beaten or arrested.
More recently, dozens of men have been detained for alleged ties to the armed militant Rohingya Solidarity Organisation, said Khin Maung Win, a resident from Maungdaw township, adding that at least one reportedly died from injuries sustained during interrogation. Lewa had similar reports. Rakhine state spokesman, Win Myaing, denied any knowledge of arrests or abuse. “There’s nothing happening up there. There are no arrests of suspects of RSO. I haven’t heard anything like that,” he said.
