HEADLINES
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NEWS ON MIGRANTS
42 trafficked Myanmar citizens repatriated from Thailand
Burmese migrant workers harassed by gangs in Southern Thailand
Forty four Burmese nationals held in Bangladesh
Migrants in a bind
NEWS ON REFUGEES
Food shortage worries indigenous Kachins in food-rich valley
Over 80 Arakanese Rohingyas pushed back to Burma
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NEWS ON MIGRANTS
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42 trafficked Myanmar citizens repatriated from Thailand
2009-10-15 13:04:08
YANGON, Oct. 15 (Xinhua) — A total of 42 trafficked Myanmar citizens, trafficked to Thailand, have been repatriated to Myanmar’s eastern border town of Myawaddy, sources with the Ministry of Social Welfare, Relief and Resettlement said on Thursday.
The trafficked Myanmar people, including 30 women and three children, were handed over by the Thai Ministry of Social Welfare and Development to its Myanmar counterpart in Myawaddy last weekend, the sources said.
The returnees have been brought to Mon state’s capital of Mawlamyine and are being accommodated in a vocational skill training school and after the training, they will be sent back to their respective homes, the sources added.
Meanwhile, in August this year, six trafficked Myanmar young women were saved and repatriated back from China to Myanmar across the border following a joint combating of human trafficking crime by special squads of both sides
The six were handed over by the Ruili anti-human trafficking special squad of China to Myanmar’s Muse squad.
A total of 13 men brokers and seven women brokers of two human trafficking gangs were also arrested in Ruili, a border town opposite to Myanmar’s Muse, according to Myanmar anti-drug authorities.
According to the ministry, under the government to government system, a total of 686 victims smuggled out of Myanmar had been rescued and brought back to the country as of 2008 and they were being kept at the rehabilitation centers.
Of them, those who were repatriated back from Thailand were the majority with 344, followed by those from China with 272, Malaysia with 45, Japan, Bangladesh, Jamaica and Singapore as well as China’s Macao, Chinese Taiwan, the ministry’s figures showed.
Myanmar has so far set up border liaison offices in Muse with immediate neighbor of China and in Tachilek, Myawaddy and Kawthoung with Thailand to promote cooperation in cracking down on human trafficking at the basic level.
Coordination is also being made for the move involving the UNODC and UN Inter Agency Project (UNIPA) on Human Trafficking in the Greater Mekong Subregion (GMS).
The government has so far built eight rehabilitation centers offering educational program and vocational skill training for the victims.
In the latest development, Myanmar is also planning to set up a temporary care center in Muse for the victims with the help of GGA organization of Japan in November this year.
http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2009-10/15/content_12237443.htm
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Burmese migrant workers harassed by gangs in Southern Thailand
Thu 15 Oct 2009, Tala Lawi
Incidents of Thai gangs harassing and robbing Burmese migrant workers in Southern Thailand are on the rise, claim several migrant workers interviewed by IMNA.
A Mon migrant worker, employed at a rural rubber plantation in Hat Yai district in Trang Province in Southern Thailand, reported to IMNA that on October 11, he and his wife were robbed of by a gang of three Thai teenagers. The gang stole 440 baht and a cell phone.
Nai Myint Aung, aged 30, informed IMNA that he and eight of his friends are already paying 50 baht per month to a different Thai gang, and have been doing so for the past eight months. Nai Myint Aung told IMNA that if he or his friends fail to pay the monthly extortion fee, the gang follows them back to their homes and harasses their families.
Nai Myint Aung reported to IMNA that on the afternoon of October 11th at 2pm he left his boss’s home, where he had received his paycheck of 7000 baht, and entered the local market. The gang of Thai teenagers followed him from the marketplace to his neighborhood. Nai Myint Aung claimed that the gang stopped his motorbike and seized his wife who accompanied him, threatening the pair with a knife. The gang then searched his wife’s body and stole 440 baht and her cellular phone.
A Thai neighbor of the pair, a-35 year-old man, saw the Nai Myint Aung and his wife being attacked, and phoned the police, causing the gang to scatter. Nai Myint Aung reported to IMNA that his wife had luckily had the foresight to stow his paycheck in her brassiere, and thus the pair managed to escape the attack without losing the 7000 baht he’d just received.
Nai Myint Aung claimed to IMNA that he fears that the gang will continue to cause problems for his family, as the group likely remembers his motorbike number. His Thai neighbor, who came to his rescue the day of his attack, allegedly urged him to report the incident to the police, but Nai Mynit Aung says he fears that reporting the gang to the Thai police will only result in more violence. Reportedly, his fellow workers at the rubber plantation where he is employed have heard rumors of a Thai gang killing a family in the area who reported them to the authorities, and he does not want his family to meet a similar fate.
Mi Hlaing, Nai Myint Aung’s wife, told IMNA, “The Thai gangs know that most of the Mon migrant workers go to the market [once a week] to buy goods. That’s why the gangs perform a robbery every week on the way [to the market].”
Mi Hlaing added that she and her family previously lived in Thailand’s Phanga Province, but that after an incident 2 months ago where a 50-year-old Thai man attempted to rape her, she and her husband decided to move to the Hat Yai area.
A Mon worker named Mi Mee, from Pattaya, also in Southern Thailand, claims that during the last ten days, Thai gangs have stolen a gold necklace, 2000 baht, and three mobile phones from migrant workers in the Pattya area; the rape of a migrant woman in the area has also been attributed to gang activity.
Mi Mee explained to IMNA that migrant workers in Southern Thailand feel that they must face the abuse of Thai gangs in the area with patience, because the Burmese workers need their jobs in Thailand too much to cause trouble.
http://www.monnews-imna.com/newsupdate.php?ID=1565
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Forty four Burmese nationals held in Bangladesh
10/15/2009
Dhaka: Forty four Burmese nationals were rounded up by Bangladesh police in raids over two days from a few places in Bandarban hill district, said an official report.
On the first day of the raids on October 13, police arrested 23 Rohingya Muslims from Burma, the report said.
Among them, 18 people, including two children and four women were arrested from Penbazaar area in Alikadam township of Bangladesh, opposite Buthidaung Township in Burma
Five more Burmese citizens were arrested from Balagata in Bandarban on the same day.
On October 14, a Bangladeshi police team in another raid in Raicha and Kaistali areas arrested 21 more Rohingyas, including two women.
They entered Bangladesh territory to live illegally in these localities, police sources added.
The police handed them over to BDR personnel for pushing them back through the Naikhangchhari border close to the Burmese town of Taungbro.
A report from Bangladesh authorities said over 1200 Muslims from Burma were pushed back from Bangladesh during the past six months.
http://www.narinjara.com/details.asp?id=2376
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Migrants in a bind
16/10/2009 at 12:00 AM
There is no question about it. Thailand needs to solve the problem of underground migrant workers, now estimated at 3 million strong. The challenge is how to do it right.
The annual registration system has failed miserably because the procedures are too complicated and costly, and job registration does not automatically extend to migrants the medical and welfare protection that Thai workers receive.
Given the registration’s failure, the government is now requiring all migrant workers to verify their nationalities with their home countries so they may enter Thailand legally with passports and may continue working in Thailand. Like the ineffective annual registration, this nationality verification system is bound to fail. It is not only because the complex system offers little benefit. For many migrant workers, it is simply too dangerous. The majority of underground workers are from Burma and a large number of them are from ethnic groups facing violent persecution at home from the Burmese military junta. The Mon, Karen and Rohinya, for example. Turning themselves in and revealing their identities will likely put their lives at risk, as well as those of their families back home.
The nationality verification deadline has been set for the end of February 2010. According to the cabinet resolution, only those carrying nationality verification documents may stay and work. Those who do not will be deported. There is little chance of the 3 million migrant workers meeting the deadline, which is only four months away.
The nationality verification system requires the migrant workers to go through different layers of bureaucratic red tape in both Thailand and Burma. Yet, the migrant communities have received little information about how to go about it. Nor any systematic support. Confused and fearful, they have become easy prey for brokers who work in hand in glove with corrupt officials on both sides of the border. The problem is not only about being enormously overcharged. Many have become victims of cheating by bogus brokers.
Given the confusing situation, uncertain benefits and fear of persecution, many migrant workers have chosen to play wait-and-see, despite the threat of deportation. For them, it would not be too difficult to cross the porous border and pay their way back into Thailand when there are still many corrupt officials and greedy employers looking for cheap slave labour.
Labour and human rights groups have come up with recommendations to ease the knots in nationality verification. Among these are: extending the deadline, allowing the ones who have not yet completed the verification process to continue working, supplying the workers with clear and exact information, and regulating the brokers to prevent fraud, debt bondage and human trafficking.
Making the verification system transparent, accessible and affordable is crucial for it to succeed. So it would be a mistake for the government to ignore these recommendations, the most difficult of which to implement would be the one calling for Burmese authorities to set up nationality verification centres in Thailand, as talking sense with the junta is easier said than done.
Which brings home the fact that the root cause of the problem is in Burma. So long as the junta continues to terrorise its people, this problem will not go away. But until these knots can be unravelled through internal and external pressures, Thailand cannot deny its responsibility to regulate and provide migrant workers with decent welfare and work benefits.
http://www.bangkokpost.com/opinion/opinion/25701/migrants-in-a-bind-over-rule
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NEWS ON REFUGEES
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Food shortage worries indigenous Kachins in food-rich valley
Thursday, 15 October 2009 16:32
Land confiscation by the Burmese military junta has left indigenous Kachins in food-rich Hukawng (also spelled Hugawng) valley in northern Kachin State fighting for survival, said local sources.
Now they cannot receive relatives and guests in their homes because they are unable to serve them proper meals, according to residents of Danai (also spelled Tanai), the main town in the valley.
Tradition demands that every family receives all guests and relatives and serve decent and proper food because they used to harvest an abundance of rice-paddy and crops in their farms every year, given the rich-soil for cultivation, said natives of the valley.
Now, they have lost all their farms to the junta’s confiscation drive. Over 200,000 acres of land in the valley were seized and handed over to the Rangoon-based Yuzana Company in 2006, said local Kachins.
Since late 2006, the Yuzana Company has been cleaning up the deep forests along Ledo Road on the left and right, for Cassava and Sugarcane cultivation. It has also constructed two large Thai-style factories and worker’s blocks.
As a result, most indigenous Kachins, original land owners of the valley have no more land and farms to cultivate traditional rice-paddy, fruits and seasonal crops, said locals. They are now working in the company, they added.
People are now struggling to eke out a living in Kachin villages between Namti and Danai along the Ledo Road, (also called Stilwell Road)— Dum Bang, Nawng Mi, Sahtu Zup, Wara Zup, Ting Kawk, Bangkok, Kawng Ra and Danai, according to the villagers.
Quite a few villages have to cultivate some poppy for survival even as opium demand is high in the local gold mines. A Viss of opium can be sold for over 1 million Kyat (1Viss = 1.6 Kilograms), added locals.
Slg. Tsa Ji, General Secretary of Kachin Development Networking Group (KDNG) who published a report called “Valley of Darkness” told KNG today, “The sustainable living and the traditional livelihood of the indigenous Kachins will be eliminated as long as the Yuzana Company is stationed in the valley”.
On the flip side, the valley has become one of largest gold mining areas in the country after the Kachin Independence Organization (KIO) signed a ceasefire agreement with the junta in February 24, 1994.
Extensive gold mining and expansion of cultivation in the natural forests by the Yuzana Company has been severely damaging the World’s Largest Tiger Sanctuary in the valley recognized by the US-based Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS) in 2004, said local Kachin watch dog groups.
Now, the Myitkyina-based World Food Program (WFP) under the United Nations is distributing much-needed rice to Sadung areas in east Kachin State, where the indigenous Kachins cultivate poppy rather than rice-paddy for survival, said WFP sources.
Most people in Kachin State are farmers. But they cultivate paddy incurring losses because they do not get any support from the military regime and they have to sell paddy to the junta at fixed-reduced prices, said local farmers.
The junta claims that Kachin State is fourth largest rice-bowl in the country.
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Over 80 Arakanese Rohingyas pushed back to Burma
Thursday, 15 October 2009 18:16
Cox’s Bazaar, Bangladesh: Bangladeshi authorities pushed back over 80 Arakanese Rohingyas to Burma in a week along the Bangladesh-Burma border and Chittagong Hill Tracts.
On 4 October, four Arakanese Rohingyas were arrested from Baish Ari village of Naikhong Chari upazila under the Bandarban district. They were pushed back to Burma from Sacc Dalar point, said a local Hamid.
On 5 October, 18 Arakanese Rohingyas were arrested from Alikadam in Bandarban district of Chittagong Hill Tracts, said Jaker from the area.
Similarly, on 7 October, 21 Arakanese Rohingyas, including two women were arrested by police from Kaistoli in Bandarban district. They were produced in court for illegally entering Bangladesh and then sent to Bandarban jail, said a local.
On 9 October, 17 Arakanese Rohingyas were arrested by the Bangladesh Rifles (BDR) from Asat Toli Para of Nakhonchari upazila in Bandarban District, and later pushed back to Burma, according to BDR sources.
On 13 October, in the morning, 12 Arakanese Rohingyas including two children and four women were arrested by police from Panbazar and Alikadam. The police also raided Balagata area in Bandarban district and arrested six more Rohingyas. They were handed over to the BDR of Naikhonchari and bushed back to Burma from Sacc Dalar border point, sources said.
The police did not arrest all the family members, but they preferred to arrest the male members of the family. As a result, a father left his other family members or a mother left hers. The operation was conducted by police in collaboration with local Awami-league (AL) leaders. The reason for the operation is not known to the public, said a local from Alikadam.
The same day, in the morning, nine Arakanese Rohingyas from Shapuri Dip including five women and another four Rohingas from Leda were arrested by BDR. At about 11 am they were pushed back to Burma from Shapuri Dip, said Habib from Shapuri Dip.
On 14 October 10 Arakanese Rohingas were also arrested from Alikadam and pushed back to Burma through the Naikhonchari BDR from Saac Dalar border point. The arrestees have been living at Alikadan under the Bandarban district for over 10 years, said another local from Alikadam.
Today, the BDR started to check passengers at Dum Dum Meah, Whykong and Mricha check-points on the Cox’s Bazaar-Teknaf Highway. They checked National Identity Cards on buses and cars. Those able to show their ID cards were allowed to pass and those who failed were released after warning. But, the refugees were sent to refugee camps by bus guarded by the BDR, according to Kalam, a member of the unregistered refugee committee of Kutupalong.
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10/15/2009
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http://www.narinjara.com/detailsbur.asp?id=2132
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10/14/2009
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http://www.narinjara.com/detailsbur.asp?id=2130
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