Thai should end inhumane detention of Rohingya: HRW

The Thai government should immediately end the detention under inhumane conditions of more than 1,700 ethnic Rohingya from Burma, New York based Human Rights Watch (HRW) said on June 3.

Rohingya asylum seekers should be transferred from overcrowded cells in immigration detention centers to get screening and protection from the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), the HRW statement said after broadcasting of ITN Channel 4 News on May 31.
The ITN Channel 4 News had broadcasted on the air about shocking video footage of Rohingya locked up in an overcrowded immigration facility in Thailand’s Phang Nga province.
“Thailand should respect the basic rights of Rohingya ‘boat people’ and stop detaining them in horrific conditions,” said Brad Adams, Asia director at Human Rights Watch.
“The government should immediately allow them to pursue their asylum claims with the UN refugee agency.”
Under the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, everyone has the right to seek asylum from persecution. While Thailand is not a party to the 1951 Refugee Convention, under customary international law, the Thai government has an obligation of “non-refoulement” – not to return anyone to places where their life or freedom would be at risk.
UNHCR’s Guidelines on Applicable Criteria and Standards Relating to the Detention of Asylum Seekers reaffirms the basic human right to seek asylum and state that “[a]s a general rule, asylum seekers should not be detained.” The UNHCR Guidelines also note that detention should not be used as a punitive or disciplinary measure, and that detention should not be used as a means of discouraging refugees from applying for asylum.
“Thai authorities should provide temporary protection to Rohingya and scrap the ‘help on’ policy that places these asylum seekers in harm’s way,” Adams said.
“The government should help Rohingya who escape from oppression and hardship in Burma – not worsen their plight.”

Village uproots for authority forced to registered as Bengali in registration program

Maungdaw, Arakan State: Kyikanpyin (Kawabil) village had become uprooted after authority enforced the Rohingya villagers to registered as Bengali in the place of Rohingya –under race column – in government registration program - digital Photograph and signature – since June 3,  according to a local elder who denied to be named.

“More than 200 security forces – Burma border security force (Nasaka), Army, police and Hluntin – surrounded the village to stop fleeing the villagers from the village, to force the villagers to join the government registration program. But, most of the villagers –mostly male villagers- flee from their village leaving their all properties.”
The village had become a war field area as the security forces destroyed all the properties of Rohingya and took the valuables things from Rohingya home. The forces destroy mostly the kitten wares and grain stock, said a school teacher from Maungdaw.
“The forces stationed in the village like their outpost station in the war and the villagers are not able to return to their village. The villagers lived in the jungle, paddy fields and nearby villages. Some family members were divided from family groups. Some stayed in the village –mostly old men, females and children- are like hostage under forces.”
At this situation, the Nasaka personnel forcibly took female villagers and old people from the homes and forced to get into trucks and carried to the Nasaka headquarters of Kawar Bill where the Nasaka compelled them to say “Bengali” in place of “Rohingya” in survey form and took photographs and computerized. After completing the work, villagers were sent to their village, said a local businessman on condition of anonymity.
The government and State authorities are trying to stamp the Rohingya as Bengali to use in coming all Burma population census to show  the international observer that the areas were not secure, so the authority took advance census where the people said themselves as Bengali, said a politician from Maungdaw.
“This is first times in Maungdaw , authority forced and surround the village  like war time to join their registration program. It is totally violation of Human Rights to convince, 
some things by forced without willing of someone.”
The Nasaka personnel apparently detained the Rohingya villagers in connection to a protest over a government registration program that required them to state their identities as “Bengali”.