Irrawaddy News, 2 Dec 2009

About 11,000 Burmese refugees in Malaysia including Chin, Mon, Shan and Kachin were recognized by the United Nations Higher Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) in 2009, making them eligible for  resettlement in third countries.

Of the total, Chin numbered about 5,000 people; Mon, 1,800; followed by Kachin and Shan at about 1,000 and other ethnic groups. Arakan were not recognized this year.

A young Burmese refugee participates a demonstration outside the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, last year. (Photo: AP)

It was first time the UNHCR recognized such a large number of Burmese refugees. Burmese refugees experienced difficulties earlier this year when Thailand launched a crackdown on illegal Burmese migrants attempting to enter the country from the Malaysia-Thai border, said a member of the Alliance of Chin Refugees (ACR).

According to ACR, about 50,000 Chin currently live in Malaysia. An estimated 20,000 Chin have been granted UNHCR refugees status in Malaysia since 2001.

Nai Roi Mon, an official with the Mon Refugee Office (MRO) in Malaysia, told The Irrawaddy on Wednesday that it processed about 3,000 Mon for UNHCR refugee status.

According to the MRO, no Mon were granted refugee status in 2007, and only 500 were recognized in 2008.

“They have given favorable recognition to children under age 18, especially from families with many children, but no husband. They also favor older men, over 50, as well,” he said.

There are about 20,000 Mon living in Malaysia, many illegally, according to the MRO.

“If you have an UNHCR card, if you are arrested the UNHCR can  help you during detention. This is an advantage for people who work here,” he said.

Burmese refugees recognized by the UNHCR may wait for up to one year or longer for resettlement to third countries.

About 500,000 Burmese migrants work in Malaysia, legally and illegally, according to the Kuala Lumpur-based Burma Workers’ Rights Protection Committee.

At the end of October 2009, about 67,800 refugees and asylum-seekers were registered with the UNHCR in Malaysia, according to the UNHCR.

Of those, 62,000 are refugees from Burma, comprising 28,100 Chin, 16,100 Rohingya, 3,700 Burmese Muslims, 2,900 Kachin and other ethnic minorities.

The UNHCR said a large number of Burmese refugees remain unregistered. The refugee community estimates that unregistered refugees and asylum-seekers could number 30,000 people.

Burmese refugees living in Thailand continue to relocated to Malaysia to apply for refugee status. Many pay 18,000 Thai baht (US $500) or more to enter the country illegally.

The Malaysian government has cooperated with the UNHCR on humanitarian grounds since 1975 even though Malaysia has not signed the UN Convention Protocol Relating to the Status of Refugees.

Burmese refugees have been sent to third countries including the United States, Canada, Australia, France, New Zealand, Sweden, Finland, Denmark and Norway.

Ninety-five Burmese migrants, who were trafficked into Thailand from Burma by gangs, were freed from captivity this week when police and human rights activists raided houses in southern Thailand. The migrants are currently being held at a military base while Thai authorities try to round up members of the trafficking gang. 

Fifty-one men who had been forced to work on fishing boats were rescued from Trang Province in southern Thailand on Nov. 23, while 44 women who had been trafficked into Ranong Province to work in brothels were freed after a raid on Nov. 27. 

Nai Harry, a social worker who is involved with an anti-human trafficking group based in Mahachai, near Bangkok, told The Irrawaddy on Monday that after following a tip-off from one of the trafficked fishermen in Trang, his group rescued the 51 men.

“We went early in the morning after we got a phone call from someone. We thought there would only be a few people, but when we got there we found there were many men on the boat who had been locked in their cabins,” he said. 

Nai Harry, who declined to name his organization because of security fears, said the 51 victims were from the Irrawaddy delta, Pegu, Mon State and Tenasserim Division. They were forced to work on Thai fishing boats, some working for 18 months without pay, others working for three years without pay. He said that the trafficked Burmese men were forbidden from going ashore and were locked in their cabins when they were not working.

In Ranong, 44 women were rescued by the anti-human trafficking group after the organization fixed a price to buy the women’s freedom, a group member said on Monday. Many of the women are ethnic Mon from eastern Burma.

A member of the anti-human trafficking group in Ranong said that they first rescued 12 women who were severely ill with AIDS and who had been dumped in a local house and left to die. The other 32 women were allowed to leave after the group agreed a price with the traffickers.

The NGO member said 28 women were trafficked to work at the brothel last year while the other four just arrived two weeks ago.

Naing Naing, one of the trafficking victims in Trang, told Nai Harry that he is from Tavoy Township in Tenasserim Division. He said he was forced to work for seven months on the boat, during which time his salary was used to pay back his trafficking fees––some 25,000 baht (US $750).

Naing Naing said that he had requested to be set free after seven months working on the boat, but the boat owner refused. However, he managed to sneak ashore and telephone the anti-trafficking group in Mahachai.

According to Naing Naing, if trafficked migrants on the boat argued with the owner they were routinely killed and thrown overboard, and some were sold on to another fishing boat owner in Indonesia.

According to Nai Harry, the 51 fishermen were paid nothing for their labor. The 300 baht ($9) monthly salary the boat owner paid went directly to the trafficking broker.

Although several members of the trafficking gang have reportedly been arrested, others escaped. Two of the brokers are said to be ethnic Mon men from Burma. The Thai authorities are reportedly investigating the case.

Most victims said that they were trafficked by road to Myawaddy Township on the Thai-Burmese border. They were reportedly told they would get work on a construction site and receive good salaries.

In October, Thai police and human right activists in Mahachai raided two brokers’ houses and rescued 18 people who had been detained on a fishing boat.

The human trafficking problem has led to an estimated 1,000 fishermen jumping ship and living on islands in Indonesia to escape the ill-treatment of boat captains, according to human rights activists in Mahachai.

Irrawaddy news, 25 Nov 2009

About 62 Burmese migrants who work at the Night Bazaar in Chiang Mai were arrested on Tuesday, reportedly as part of a security sweep prior to Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva’s two-day visit to Chiang Mai starting on November 28.

Aung Toe, 40, a Burmese migrant, told The Irrawaddy on Wednesday, “They arrested many people while they were working, including some who had work permits.”

He said authorities swept through the popular Night Bazaar looking for people who appeared to  be Burmese.

“I escaped  because I look more Chinese or Japanese,” Aung Toe said.

Another Burmese worker in the market, Phe Be, said  people who tried to run away were beaten by police.

Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva will be in Chiang Mai on a two-day visit, his first since he was elected one year ago.

The security in the city is tighter than before since a local radio station announcer who supports anti-government group reportedly made threatening remarks about taking the prime minister’s life if he came to Chiang Mai. The government is investigating the threat.

An opposition political group, known as the Red Shirts, has said it will hold demonstrations during the prime minister’s visit.

Jackie Pollock, a founder of of the Migrant Assistance Program (MAP), a Chiang Mai-based NGO said, “The challenge to the current administration is from the electorate, not from the migrants who have no political rights. To try and silence a group of people like the migrants who are already silenced makes little sense beyond diverting the media and others’ attention away from the real issues.”

An estimated 80,000 Burmese migrants—both registered and unregistered—work in the Chiang Mai area. The majority are ethnic Shan.

Nov 18, 2009, Irrawaddy news,

About 50 traditional hand-dug oil wells and 10 acres of land were confiscated on Nov. 14 by the Burmese authorities in Kyuakphyu Township in Arakan State in western Burma, according to local sources.

The sources told The Irrawaddy on Tuesday that the landowners are afraid they will not receive any compensation from the Burmese authorities. Police in Kyuakphyu Township told them that the order to confiscate property came from Naypyidaw.

Maung Phyu, one of the landowners, said: “They came with guns to confiscate our property. We couldn’t say anything to them. This property is our legacy. We rely on it. We’ve lost it now, and we have no jobs.”

Land confiscation by the government is a common practice in Arakan State, according to the Arakan Rivers Network (ARN) based in Thailand.

An ARN report, “Holding Our Land,” published in February, said that 53,000 acres of land in Arakan State have been confiscated. Most of the property involved oil wells.

One Korean and two Chinese oil companies operate in Arakan State: China National Offshore Oil Company (CNOOC), the China National Petroleum Corporation (CNPC) and Korea Gas Corporation (KOGAS).

Local sources said they believed the confiscated land will be given to CNOOC to explore for oil on the site.

The oil companies and local landowners are often in business conflicts because oil companies promise to pay compensation after they take over land, but they don’t pay fair prices, according to the Arakan Oil Watch (AOW)  based in Thailand.

Tun Thar Aung, a Burmese migrant in Mae Sot, told The Irrawaddy his land was confiscated by CNOOC. The company told him to sign a contract and it promised to pay compensation, he said, but no payment was ever made.

Land confiscation has increased in Arakan State since 2007 when authorities evicted many landowners in Kyuakphyu Township, according to AOW.  About 70 villagers fled to Thailand and Malaysia after protests were made against CNOOC.

Arakan rights activists said the oil and gas projects in Arakan State have not benefited landowners or villagers, and the companies violate human rights and cause environment damage. 

Meanwhile, CNPC announced on Nov. 3 that it had begun construction on the gas pipeline which will run through Burma into Yunnan Province in China. The Burmese government has agreed to sell gas to China in a contract that will provide up to US $30 billion to the Burmese government.

Nov 16, 2009, Irrawaddy news,

CHIANG MAI, Thailand — Former US President Jimmy Carter helped the housing charity that he champions, Habitat for Humanity, launch a campaign on Monday to build homes for 50,000 families in the Mekong River region over the next five years.

Carter and his wife, Rosalynn, are among 3,000 volunteers from 25 countries working with Habitat for Humanity this week to help build and repair homes along the Mekong River in Thailand, Vietnam, China, Cambodia and Laos.

Former US president Jimmy Carter (Photo: AFP)

The homes in Cambodia are being built for families currently living in a garbage dump, the ones in Vietnam are for fishermen who currently live on their boats, and the project in China involves construction of an apartment building in a part of Sichuan Province devastated by a 2008 earthquake.

“In an area of the world where many people live in deplorable conditions, we have a chance to help families improve their housing,” said Carter, wearing sneakers, jeans and a work shirt. He and his wife spent Monday helping build homes in northern Thailand’s Chiang Mai Province, where 82 will be constructed in honor of King Bhumibol Adulyadej, who celebrates his 82nd birthday next month.

Habitat for Humanity’s Chief Executive Officer Jonathan Reckford said the Georgia-based nonprofit group decided to scale up its activities in the Mekong region over the next five years because the needs were so great.

“This is an area that gets less attention than some other parts of the world,” Reckford said. “But if you look at income levels, there are huge numbers of families living at terribly low levels—at a dollar a day. There is a huge deficit of decent housing, so it starts with the need.”

Carter, who spent the morning filling in the foundation cracks of a home, said his experience over the years with Habitat has been a rare chance to work along with some of the world’s poorest families. He was joined by several regional celebrities, including Chinese movie star Jet Li and Japanese football legend Hidetoshi Nakata.

“This is a wonderful opportunity for me and my wife to break down the barriers that exist between rich people like us and those in need who have never had a decent home,” Carter said. “Every year when we have been in a place side by side with Habitat families, we have always benefited more than we contributed. We have always come out ahead.”

Alongside Carter, the several hundred volunteers worked with the new homeowners under a blazing sun to build the foundations and start work on the doors and windows for the homes, which were expected to be finished on Friday. Among the volunteers were the US Ambassador Eric John and scores from American companies, including 65 from Delta Airlines.

“It’s a good feeling to see everything built for these families,” said Carl Leon-Guerrero, a Delta customer service supervisor from Nashville, Tennessee. “As a native of Guam, I know what Asian communities go through with the typhoons and monsoons. So it’s good to see a concrete home for these families.”

Since its founding in 1976, Habitat has built and rehabilitated more than 300,000 homes worldwide, providing simple shelter for 1.5 million people.

Nov 16, 2009, Irrawaddy news,

Forty passengers were killed after two ships collided in Pathein Township in Irrawaddy Division at 7 p.m. On Sunday, according to an official from the Inland Water Transport office in Pathein.

A private passenger ship, the Nay Myo Tun No.8413, hit an oil tanker and sank in the Nga Wun River, 10.5 km [6.5 miles] from Pathein, the official said, adding that most of the 176 passengers were women and children. Rescue teams were still searching for survivors on Monday afternoon.
 
The official said that the Inland Water Transport office in Pathein is investigating the circumstances of the accident.