By SAW YAN NAING
More than 100 Muslim Rohingya people from Burma’s Arakan State were arrested while travelling to Rangoon in search of work and were later sentenced to six months’ imprisonment, according to sources in the Arakan capital, Sittwe.
Burma’s Rohingya minority are prohibited from travelling outside Arakan State and are further marginalized by other discriminatory regime laws.
Many seek to escape the economic hardship of their restricted lives and turn to brokers to help them find work outside Arakan State. Hundreds put to sea in leaky vessels and head for Malaysia, but many end up on Thailand beaches or drown in the stormy waters of the Andaman Sea.
Thai authorities are reported to have arrested about 1,000 Rohingya migrants who landed illegally on Thai beaches in 2006. In February 2007, a group of 92 Rohingya men and youths were arrested off the Thai port of Ranong.
The group arrested near Sittwe were aboard a Rangoon-bound bus, according to one source, Myo Nyunt. Children were also apprehended, but their fate is unknown.
Sources said brokers who had arranged for the group to travel to Rangoon were also arrested and had been sent to Naypyidaw.
Brokers reportedly earn about 800,000 Kyat (about US $640) from each Rohingya they send to work in Rangoon. The trips are disguised as religious pilgrimages.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment