• Burmese
Tuesday, May 20, 2025
No Result
View All Result
NEWSLETTER
The Irrawaddy
27 °c
Yangon
  • Home
  • News
    • Burma
    • Politics
    • World
    • Asia
    • Myanmar’s Crisis & the World
    • Ethnic Issues
    • War Against the Junta
    • Junta Cronies
    • Conflicts In Numbers
    • Junta Watch
    • Fact Check
    • Investigation
    • Myanmar-China Watch
    • Obituaries
  • Politics
  • Business
  • Opinion
    • Commentary
    • Guest Column
    • Analysis
    • Editorial
    • Stories That Shaped Us
    • Letters
  • Junta Watch
  • Ethnic Issues
  • War Against the Junta
  • In Person
    • Interview
    • Profile
  • Books
  • Donation
  • Home
  • News
    • Burma
    • Politics
    • World
    • Asia
    • Myanmar’s Crisis & the World
    • Ethnic Issues
    • War Against the Junta
    • Junta Cronies
    • Conflicts In Numbers
    • Junta Watch
    • Fact Check
    • Investigation
    • Myanmar-China Watch
    • Obituaries
  • Politics
  • Business
  • Opinion
    • Commentary
    • Guest Column
    • Analysis
    • Editorial
    • Stories That Shaped Us
    • Letters
  • Junta Watch
  • Ethnic Issues
  • War Against the Junta
  • In Person
    • Interview
    • Profile
  • Books
  • Donation
No Result
View All Result
The Irrawaddy
No Result
View All Result
Home News Burma

Burma Says Persecution Not the Cause of Migrant Crisis

The Irrawaddy by The Irrawaddy
June 4, 2015
in Uncategorized
Reading Time: 3 mins read
0 0
A A
Burma Says Persecution Not the Cause of Migrant Crisis

Migrants

4.1k
VIEWS
Share on FacebookShare on Twitter

RANGOON/MAUNGDAW — Burma said on Thursday that persecution of its Rohingya Muslim population was not the cause of Southeast Asia’s migrant crisis, a day after the United States called on the country to give full rights to the minority to help end the exodus.

President Barack Obama said this week that Burma needed to end discrimination against the Rohingya if it was to succeed in its transition to a democracy, as Washington upped the pressure on the country to tackle what it sees as one of the root causes of a migration that the region has struggled to cope with.

Burma does not recognize its 1.1 million Rohingya as citizens, rendering them effectively stateless. Almost 140,000 were displaced in deadly clashes with Buddhists in the country’s western Arakan State, also known as Rakhine, in 2012.

RelatedPosts

Shan Party Says It’s Ready to Take Part in Junta’s Election

Shan Party Says It’s Ready to Take Part in Junta’s Election

May 19, 2025
200
Nvidia CEO unveils plan to build ‘AI supercomputer’ in Taiwan

Nvidia CEO unveils plan to build ‘AI supercomputer’ in Taiwan

May 19, 2025
42
Myanmar Political Parties Fear Mass Boycott of Junta’s Election

Myanmar Political Parties Fear Mass Boycott of Junta’s Election

May 19, 2025
266

“It has been portrayed that discrimination and persecution are causing people to leave Rakhine state, but that is not true,” Burma’s Minister of Foreign Affairs Wunna Maung Lwin told diplomats and international agencies in Rangoon.

He pointed to the number of Bangladeshis on board a migrant boat that landed in May as proof that the influx of “boat people” was a regional problem linked to human trafficking.

“This incident… has shown to the region as well as the international community this is not the root cause,” he said.

The boat he referred to was intercepted by Burma’s navy last month. Burma has said 200 of the 208 people aboard were economic migrants from Bangladesh.

But a Reuters investigation found that 150-200 Rohingya had also been aboard that boat, but were spirited away by people smugglers in the week before the navy brought it to shore.

Tareque Muhammad, deputy chief of mission at the Bangladesh embassy in Rangoon, told Reuters that only 150 people from that boat had been identified and documented as Bangladeshis.

Zaw Aye Maung, the Rangoon Region Ethnic Rakhine Affairs Minister, said at the same briefing that if genocide was taking place in Arakan State then it was against ethnic Arakanese Buddhists.

“We are now in danger of being overrun by these Bangladeshis,” said Zaw Aye Maung, in comments that visibly angered the ambassador from Bangladesh, Mohammad Sufiur Rahman. Sufiur Rahman declined to talk to reporters after the briefing.

The powerful speaker of Burma’s Parliament, Shwe Mann, wrote an open letter to UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon appealing for international organizations to “avoid creating misconceptions about our country and aggravating communal tensions and conflict.”

The letter, dated June 3 and published in Burmese state media on Thursday, came after the UN Security Council held its first closed-door briefing on human rights in Burmalast week. A council diplomat inside that briefing said UN human rights chief Zeid Ra’ad Al Hussein described the Rohingya as facing institutional discrimination.

Dumped at Sea

The current crisis blew up last month after a Thai crackdown on trafficking camps along its border with Malaysia made it too risky for people smugglers to land their human cargo. Smugglers abandoned boats full of migrants at sea.

Burma was in the process of verifying the place of origin of 734 migrants the navy brought ashore on Wednesday, Wunna Maung Lwin said. They were found drifting in the Andaman Sea on Friday in an overloaded fishing boat that was taking on water.

Several migrants said that smugglers had loaded them from three smaller boats onto the larger vessel.

“The traffickers told us ‘we can’t go to Thailand, so you have to go alone’,” Marmod Toyo, who said he was a Rohingya, told Reuters.

He said he was at sea for two months after being offered 50,000 kyat ($45.25) by an agent to get on a boat to Malaysia. Marmod, who has a wife and four children, said he knew it was a trick but that his family needed the money.

“There’s not enough food back home and no work,” he said. “The human trafficker came and gave me money. I knew he might sell me, but I needed it.”

Another migrant said his uncle, who was also on the boat, was beaten to death by one of the crew before the body was dumped overboard.

“My uncle was eating rice and asked for some water, so they killed him,” said Siszul Islam, from the Bangladeshi capital Dhaka.

There was no way of independently corroborating the migrants’ accounts.

Some 4,000 migrants from Bangladesh and Burma have landed in Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand and Burma in the past month. The United Nations estimates around 2,000 migrants may still be adrift.

Indonesia would repatriate economic migrants from Bangladesh as soon as it could, but how to handle Rohingya migrants was more complex, said Andi Rachmianto, the international security and disarmament director at the foreign ministry.

“We need to differentiate between Rohingya migrants and migrants from Bangladesh because their motivations are different,” Rachmianto said.

Your Thoughts …
The Irrawaddy

The Irrawaddy

...

Similar Picks:

Exodus: Tens of Thousands Flee as Myanmar Junta Troops Face Last Stand in Kokang
Burma

Exodus: Tens of Thousands Flee as Myanmar Junta Troops Face Last Stand in Kokang

by Hein Htoo Zan
November 28, 2023
98k

Myanmar National Democratic Alliance Army troops are opening roads and pathways through forests for people to flee Kokang’s capital as...

Read moreDetails
Burning Alive in Myanmar: Two Resistance Fighters Executed in Public
Burma

Burning Alive in Myanmar: Two Resistance Fighters Executed in Public

by The Irrawaddy
February 7, 2024
88.6k

People’s Defense Force says junta troops told every household in the village to send one member to witness the double...

Read moreDetails
Another Entire Junta Battalion Raises the White Flag in Myanmar’s Northern Shan State
War Against the Junta

Another Entire Junta Battalion Raises the White Flag in Myanmar’s Northern Shan State

by The Irrawaddy
November 29, 2023
86.9k

Brotherhood Alliance member says it now has complete control of Kokang’s northernmost section after the junta’s Light Infantry Battalion 125...

Read moreDetails
Depleted Myanmar Military Urges Deserters to Return to Barracks
Burma

Depleted Myanmar Military Urges Deserters to Return to Barracks

by The Irrawaddy
December 4, 2023
58.8k

The junta said deserters would not be punished for minor crimes, highlighting the military’s shortage of troops as resistance offensives...

Read moreDetails
As Myanmar’s Military Stumbles, a Top General’s Dissapearance Fuels Intrigue
Burma

As Myanmar’s Military Stumbles, a Top General’s Dissapearance Fuels Intrigue

by The Irrawaddy
April 19, 2024
46.6k

The junta’s No. 2 has not been seen in public since April 3, sparking rumors that he was either gravely...

Read moreDetails
Enter the Dragon, Exit the Junta: Myanmar’s Brotherhood Alliance makes Chinese New Year Vow
Burma

Enter the Dragon, Exit the Junta: Myanmar’s Brotherhood Alliance makes Chinese New Year Vow

by The Irrawaddy
February 12, 2024
44.4k

Ethnic armed grouping says it will continue Operation 1027 offensive until goal of ousting the junta is achieved. 

Read moreDetails
Load More
Next Post
‘Heated’ Debate Again Stymies New Mining Law

‘Heated’ Debate Again Stymies New Mining Law

NLD Says Many Errors on Initial Voter Lists

NLD Says Many Errors on Initial Voter Lists

No Result
View All Result

Recommended

How Myanmar Junta Uses Air Force to Fight Its Corner

How Myanmar Junta Uses Air Force to Fight Its Corner

6 days ago
1.3k
China’s Two-Faced Diplomacy in Myanmar

China’s Two-Faced Diplomacy in Myanmar

9 hours ago
1.1k

Most Read

  • Workers at Adidas Factory in Myanmar Strike for Living Wage

    Workers at Adidas Factory in Myanmar Strike for Living Wage

    shares
    Share 0 Tweet 0
  • China’s Two-Faced Diplomacy in Myanmar

    shares
    Share 0 Tweet 0
  • Myanmar Junta Abandons Chinese Pipeline Amid Resistance Attacks

    shares
    Share 0 Tweet 0
  • Myanmar Political Parties Fear Mass Boycott of Junta’s Election

    shares
    Share 0 Tweet 0
  • 58 Myanmar Junta Airstrikes Target Civilians in Two Weeks

    shares
    Share 0 Tweet 0

Newsletter

Get The Irrawaddy’s latest news, analyses and opinion pieces on Myanmar in your inbox.

Subscribe here for daily updates.

Contents

  • News
  • Politics
  • War Against the Junta
  • Myanmar’s Crisis & the World
  • Conflicts In Numbers
  • Junta Crony
  • Ethnic Issues
  • Asia
  • World
  • Business
  • Economy
  • Election 2020
  • Elections in History
  • Cartoons
  • Features
  • Opinion
  • Editorial
  • Commentary
  • Guest Column
  • Analysis
  • Letters
  • In Person
  • Interview
  • Profile
  • Dateline
  • Specials
  • Myanmar Diary
  • Women & Gender
  • Places in History
  • On This Day
  • From the Archive
  • Myanmar & COVID-19
  • Intelligence
  • Myanmar-China Watch
  • Lifestyle
  • Travel
  • Food
  • Fashion & Design
  • Videos
  • Photos
  • Photo Essay
  • Donation

About The Irrawaddy

Founded in 1993 by a group of Myanmar journalists living in exile in Thailand, The Irrawaddy is a leading source of reliable news, information, and analysis on Burma/Myanmar and the Southeast Asian region. From its inception, The Irrawaddy has been an independent news media group, unaffiliated with any political party, organization or government. We believe that media must be free and independent and we strive to preserve press freedom.

  • Copyright
  • Code of Ethics
  • Privacy Policy
  • Team
  • About Us
  • Careers
  • Contact
  • Burmese

© 2023 Irrawaddy Publishing Group. All Rights Reserved

Welcome Back!

Login to your account below

Forgotten Password?

Retrieve your password

Please enter your username or email address to reset your password.

Log In
No Result
View All Result
  • Home
  • News
    • Burma
    • Politics
    • World
    • Asia
    • Myanmar’s Crisis & the World
    • Ethnic Issues
    • War Against the Junta
    • Junta Cronies
    • Conflicts In Numbers
    • Junta Watch
    • Fact Check
    • Investigation
    • Myanmar-China Watch
    • Obituaries
  • Politics
  • Opinion
    • Commentary
    • Guest Column
    • Analysis
    • Editorial
    • Stories That Shaped Us
    • Letters
  • Ethnic Issues
  • War Against the Junta
  • In Person
    • Interview
    • Profile
  • Business
    • Economy
    • Business Roundup
  • Books
  • Donation

© 2023 Irrawaddy Publishing Group. All Rights Reserved

This website uses cookies. By continuing to use this website you are giving consent to cookies being used. Visit our Privacy and Cookie Policy.