DESPERATE FOR A DROP OF WATER
As humanitarian crisis rages on its shores, Burma denies charges of persecution,
RANGOON— A day after 730 migrants were brought ashore in Burma, government officials continued to wash their hands of the crisis.
Foreign Affairs Minister Wunna Maung Lwin said migrants fleeing the country were simply seeking better jobs elsewhere, and were not fleeing persecution. More than 4,600 desperate and hungry boat people have been rescued in five countries since early May after a regional crackdown on smugglers prompted some captains to abandon their human cargo at sea.
The United Nations has said about half of those who have come ashore were Rohingya Muslims fleeing persecution in Burma, also known as Myanmar, and the rest were Bangladeshis escaping poverty.
The latest arrivals included men, women and children whose nationalities the government was still verifying, Lwin said.
“Those who are verified as citizens of Bangladesh will be sent back to their country starting Sunday,” he said. “Myanmar is not in a position to give assistance to the migrants long term, as it is a developing country.”
UN agencies and other groups said they were not getting full access to the verification process, which is seen as crucial to ensure that Burma is not falsely labelling Rohingya on the boat as citizens of Bangladesh.
“We are still trying to get full access to the 700-plus who just landed,” said Dom Scalpelli, country director for the UN’s World Food Program. “We are on the ground and discussing with the government to give us access as quickly as possible.”
The UN has called the Rohingya one of the world’s most persecuted minorities.
Burma denies the existence of the Rohingya, whose population in Rakhine state is estimated at 1.3 million people. The government says they are all “Bengali,” implying they are illegal immigrants from Bangladesh. The Rohingya are denied citizenship in Burma and face state-sanctioned discrimination including limited access to education, medical care and other basic services. Burma insists all those who have fled by boat in recent months were “Bangladeshi.” The government has gone to great lengths to make sure it is not disproven — at least not on its own soil.
Its navy detained journalists over the weekend, erasing their camera memory cards, when they were try- ing to confirm the nationalities of migrants who were hidden away for days near a remote island before being towed into Rakhine state.
They were brought Wednesday to the northern Rakhine district Maungdaw, which is near the border with Bangladesh.
In the last month, at least 47 bodies have washed to shore in Rakhine state, believed to be the corpses of migrants trying to escape trafficking ships, said Chris Lewa of the Arakan Project, which has been monitoring activities in the isolated, northern tip of Rakhine for more than a decade.
Her team saw bodies on beaches and in the mouth of a tiny river. Many were believed to be Bangladeshis, she said.