Myanmar returns 195 rescued Rohingya to Rakhine homes

Some 500 other migrants remain in border camp awaiting verification of their nationality.

Migrants, who were found at sea, look outside at a temporary shelter near the Kanyin Chaung jetty outside Maungdaw township, northern Rakhine state, on June 4

Mandalay:  Authorities in Rakhine state have returned almost 200 Rohingya migrants rescued at sea to their respective townships, an official said Tuesday.

Khin Soe, an immigration officer based in the Rakhine capital Sittwe, said 195 Rohingya migrants were returned to their homes in Maungdaw, Pauktaw, Sittwe and Buthidaung townships over the last few days.

“We verified each of the migrants, and contacted the respective township authorities to check whether these people actually lived in these places,” he said.

“Following a thorough verification process, we are now sending them back to their homes,” Khin Soe told ucanews.com on Tuesday.

The migrants were among 900 people rescued at sea by the Myanmar navy around the beginning of June and the first to be verified as coming from Myanmar.

Myanmar has already repatriated 187 migrants to Bangladesh and Bangladeshi officials are still verifying the remaining 500 being held in a border camp in Maungdaw Township, in Rakhine State.

Khin Soe said Myanmar and Bangladeshi officials are working closely to complete the repatriation process for the remaining migrants as soon as possible.

Tens of thousands of Rohingya have fled persecution in Rakhine in recent years, heading for Malaysia, Indonesia and Thailand.

However, a crackdown on human trafficking in Thailand last month triggered a humanitarian crisis when smugglers abandoned their human cargo on land and at sea.

Some 4,500 Rohingya and Bangladeshi migrants have since come ashore in the region while the United Nations estimates that around 2,000 others could still be trapped at sea.

U Faruk, a member of the Dar Paing IDP camp near Sittwe, said five women and three men from his camp returned on June 20.

One of the men, Yar Yar Kint, 28, said he was glad to be back after having survived a harrowing experience at sea.

Yar Yar Kint was offered work in Malaysia and left the camp in mid-March together with ten other people.

“I decided to leave for Malaysia with the dream of getting a better income to support my family,” he told ucanews.com by phone on Tuesday.

He said the smugglers left them with hardly any food or water when they abandoned them and their boat at sea after the vessel reached an area off the coast of Irrawaddy Division last month.

“I have yet to decide what to do now, but I am determined not to take that risk again as I faced bitter experiences,” he said.

“I thank God as I’m lucky and got the chance to return to my family,” he added.

Impoverished Rakhine state is a tinderbox of tension between its Buddhist majority and the heavily persecuted Rohingya Muslim minority, who have been confined to displacement camps and host communities segregated from the Rakhine population after deadly unrest erupted there in 2012.

Myanmar has come under harsh criticism by the international community as Rohingya migrants flee Myanmar due to ongoing persecution in Rakhine state.

The rescue of the 900 migrants earlier this month has sparked anger among hardline Buddhist monks and ethnic Rakhine people.

Ten Rakhine state townships protested against helping the migrants on June 14.

Radical monks from the Association of Protecting of Race and Religion, known as Ma Ba Tha, are also pushing the government not to accept Bengali migrants in Myanmar.

This week they pledged to urge the public to vote with a “nationalist spirit” and against those who would help the Rohingya minority remain in Myanmar.

Source: UCAN