Around 200 Malaysia voyagers missing in Bay of Bengal

Teknaf, Bangladesh: Around 200 were missing and about 60 boatpeople were rescued while a Malaysia voyage’s boat capsized in the Bay of Bengal on January 19, said a boatpeople who swam in the sea and arrived at Saint-Martian.

“The boat was capsized after crossing Saint Martin Island in the Bay of Bengal near Burma side.”

“The boat was capsized for overloading and sank under the water while the bottom of the trawler was damaged.”

“On that day, at night, a big trawler was anchored in the Bay of Bengal nearby Saint Martin, and some of the human traffickers secretly ferried over 100 boatpeople to the said trawler by small boats from Shapuri Dip for fear of police, BGB (Border Guard Bangladesh and Coast Guards. There were more than 260 boatpeople on board which has no capacity.”  

He refused his name that he had rescued 26 boatpeople by small boat of Saint-Martain with cooperation of local fishermen as he was a fisherman before and know the situation of the area.

“I was not able to save more boatpeople for fear of arrest as the Saint-Martain police personnel knew the information of boat capsized in the sea and were coming to the spot, he said to the Kaladan News.

According to a fishing boat, we saw some boat-people were in the floating nearby Nakondia Dia - between Saint-Martain and Shapuri Dip - and informed to the coastguards.

On being tipped off, the Bangladeshi Coastguards went to the spot and rescued 33 boat-people. They were kept safely by Coastguard, a Coastguard officer, Obidul Haque said.

The officer also thinks that many boatpeople are missing in the Bay of Bengal because of there were nearly 200 people in a big trawler.

According to sources, the 33 arrested boatpeople were sent to Teknaf police station for further investigation.

The trawler from Bowal Khali river of Chittagong left for Malaysia with some people and other some were taken from Shapuri Dip, according to sources.

On November 23, about 17 people were rescued and around 138 were missing while a Malaysia voyage’s boat capsized in the Bay of Bengal, at night. The boat was capsized while it attacked the rock between Saint Martin and Shapuri Dip Island,” according to an elder from Alaythankyaw, Maungdaw south.

A fisherman said from Shapuri Dip, 10 dead bodies of boat-people were recovered from Naikondia of Burma side on January 20, 2012.

An officer from Coastguard said that the dead bodies of boat-people who rescovered from Burma side, how many Bangladeshi there, it is not confirmed.

The Teknaf police sent the 33 boat-people to Cox’s Bazar jail next day morning, who were illegally trying to stowaway to Malaysia. They were rescued by Coast Guards on Thursday and handed over to police.

The Teknaf police, quoting the arrested ones, said the arrested voyagers had to pay Tk 25,000 to Tk 35,000 per head to the brokers to get on the boat.

“I began to swim and kept afloat for five hours,” fisherman Dil Mohammad of Shapuri Dip under Teknaf said, adding that he was rescued and arrested by the coast guard members.

Agent collects toll from pebble breaker

Maungdaw, Arakan State: An agent who has license for logging from Mayu range,  is collecting money from people who breaking stone into pebble from mountain range in Maungdaw, said  Kala Meah, pebble breaker from Maungdaw.

“Htun Myint Thein, the owner of Meko Company, the agent for logging – teak, hard wood, big tree, and other trees- from Mayu range.”

Htun Myint Thein is collecting money from poor people who are working stone breaking from morning to evening for their survival after supplying to General Engineer Crop (GE) who are constructing road in Maungdaw as a project program, said a NGO staff from Maungdaw.

“The poor people are giving hard work to fulfill the government project to go smooth with their break pebble to make the road, but the agent collects 4000 kyat from a truck which loads the pebble.”

“The agent has no rights to collect money from pebble breaker, but he used the power of Burmese border security force’s director Lt.Col. Aung Gyi, the copartner in the logging business. The green Mayu mountain range become without trees after Meko Company logging in this mountain.”

“The poor people (Rohingya community) have to work one week for three people to load a truck with pebble where they receives 18000 kyat, how they survival after giving 4000 kyats to agent and 5000 kyats to truck,” said an environment watch from Maungdaw.

“The Meko Company cut all the trees from Mountain which made landslide on the road and other climate change in the area.The landslide made the road block which made difficult the people communication to other town and their business.”

Blacklisted Rohingya broods in north Arakan

Chittagong, Bangladesh: More than 40,000 Rohingya children in northern Arakan are blacklisted and have been deprived of rights to travel, go to school because of their parents had an unauthorized marriage, according to Arakan Project report on Issues to be raised concerning the situation of Stateless Rohingya children in Myanmar (Burma) on January 2012, submitted to the UN Committee on the rights of the child.

Rohingya children are playing in ground without going to school

These blacklisted children are refused birth registration, and no permitted to enlist in the family list and get hidden during the authorities’ population checks, said the report.

A local schoolteacher from Maungadw town said that Rohingya kids are blacklisted by the following reasons,  they are: a). After a few months of legal marriage, husband went to abroad and the wife gave birth to a child in the absence of husband. The kid will become in black list. b). Wife gave birth to a child after legal marriage, but father and mother are not in one family list, they are separated family list. As a result, the concerned authority refused to enlist the child  in birth registration list, so it was not included in the family list of either father’s or mother’s family list. c). Before Nasaka’s establishment in north Arakan, mother gave birth to a child and the parents were late to inform the list of their child to the Nasaka to enlist in the family list, after establishing Nasaka in 1990 in northern Arakan. But, the child was not enlisted in the family list .d). Parents informed about their new born child to the local Nasaka to enlist their child, but Nasaka deliberately made late to enlist the child in the family list. So, later the child became in the black list, and e) the new born child was enlisted in the family list of grandfather of father relatives (Dada) or grandfather of mother relatives (Nana) because of absence of his/her father. Father of the child is in abroad, so the child was put in the black list. f) After illegal marriage (without getting permission from the local authority), the couple gave birth to a child. But, he married the girl according to the Islamic law. Later, this news was reached to the Nasaka camp. So, father was arrested and sentenced to jail. But the child was put in the blacklist because of illegal marriage.   

“All Rohingya children suffer complete discrimination with regard to education, health care and access to food,” the report said.

The report says that hundreds of thousands of Rohingyas scattered in abroad such as--- Bangladesh, Malaysia, Thailand and the Middle East--- following exoduses in the past few decades.

Collecting firewood for home or sell

Families with blacklisted children also suffer from “unending extortion” by local authorities because the parents can be arrested for hosting an unregistered guest, the report added.

According to The Arakan Project, Rohingyas need official authorization to marry and the authorities can take several years to grant it and marriage without authorization or cohabitation is punishable by up to 10 years’ imprisonment.

The concerned authorities have started a process of registering these children since last two months, but some parents fear this is a tactic to prosecute them for unauthorized marriage, The Arakan Project said.

Rohingya children in Burma are exposed to preventable diseases due to chronic malnutrition and a lack of access to healthcare, while many are subjected to forced labor. Rohingya villagers have to pay forced labor in the camps of Nasaka and army--- such as carrying water, collecting fire wood, washing their clothes, building roads, renovation of camps, growing paddy and vegetables in the camp, and collecting bamboos from the forest.

Four in every five Rohingyas in Burma are illiterate, the report said. The main reason for Rohingya children are not attending schools because of widespread poverty as children must contribute to the family income, it said.

Working in the farm field

“Forced labor has a severe economic impact, driving down the poor already surviving hand-to-mouth into hopeless poverty, exposing children to hunger and malnutrition,” the report said.

Burma’s nominally civilian government, which took power last year after half a century military rule, has surprised both its citizens and foreign countries with the speed of its reforms.

However, “deeply discriminatory policies” against the Rohingyas remain. The authorities justify these policies as illegal immigration management and population control, said Chris Lewa, the head of The Arakan Project

Consistently referred to as ‘illegal immigrants from Bangladesh,’ Myanmar’s Rohingyas are deprived of one of the most basic human rights – the right to identification.

“Rohingya children, in particular, bear the full brunt of the devastating impact of these (discriminatory) policies, which gravely impair their physical and mental development as children and will affect the long-term future of their community,” the report said.

At present, some of the blacklisted Rohingya children are listed to their parents’ family lists, but, the authority extorted Kyat 10,000 per head. If the parents are very poor, the authority takes two big cocks. Until now, the authority listed about 6,000 kids and was provided a card per each. There are over 50,000Rohingya blacklisted kids in northern Arakan, said a village elder preferring not to be named.