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Indonesia: Rohingya boatpeople to be deported from Aceh
[ADN Kronos] After five months of being stranded out at sea and then detained in the Indonesian city of Sabang, in the island of Aceh, 114 of 391 Rohingya boat people will soon be deported, an Indonesian Foreign Ministry spokesman Teuku Faizasyah said."They are all from Bangladesh and have agreed to the deportation," Faizasyah said. He explained on Tuesday that repatriation of the 114 people was taken after a comprehensive verification by a Foreign Ministry team. "They left their country because of economic factors, not because of security or political concerns. They have been classified as economic migrants who must be returned to their country," he said. The results of the verification, which have been conducted over the last five months, confirm that nearly all the Rohingya people from Bangladesh voluntarily chose to be deported, he said. However, the Rohingya people from Myanmar have refused to be deported. Their future will be determined by the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, as many of them are seeking asylum and are likely to be transferred to other countries. Faizasyah said the Foreign Ministry did not have any fixed schedules on the deportation of the Rohingya boatpeople from Bangladesh. "We have discussed this with the Bangladeshi government, but have not yet confirmed the technical arrangements for their repatriation," he said. Meanwhile, in a report in New York on Tuesday, Human Rights Watch said that Myanmar's neighbours should press the Myanmar military government to end the systematic abuse of Rohingya Muslims, and protect those who flee Myanmar. Human Rights Watch said the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) had failed to adequately address the plight of the Rohingyas. The 12-page report titled, Perilous Plight: Burma's Rohingya Take to the Seas, examines the causes of the exodus of the Rohingya people from Myanmar and Bangladesh, and their treatment in Southeast Asian countries. The report also details human rights violations against the Rohingya in Myanmar, especially in Arakan state, which has persisted for over 20 years. Such abuses include extrajudicial killings, forced labour, religious persecution and restrictions on movement, all exacerbated by a draconian citizenship law that leaves the Rohingya stateless. "The treatment of the Rohingya in Burma is deplorable - the Burmese government doesn't just deny Rohingya their basic rights, it denies they are even Burmese citizens," said Elaine Pearson, deputy Asia director at Human Rights Watch. Many Rohingya, mostly Muslims living on the border between Bangladesh and Burma, have fled to Thailand, Indonesia and Malaysia. Posted by: Fred 2009-05-29 |
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