Arakan News Agency
When the Myanmar navy seized a boat used by people smugglers last week, it announced that the 200 people found aboard were mostly Bangladeshis seeking better economic prospects in Southeast Asia.
But in interviews with Reuters, people who were on the boat said between 150 to 200 Rohingya were aboard at one point. Many were quietly whisked away by the traffickers in the week before the navy brought the ship to shore, they said. The number is far larger than what Reuters reported previously.
“All of the Rohingya got off the ship. The Bangladeshis stayed behind,” said a 27-year-old Rohingya woman who was on the boat with her five children. All six of them returned to their village of Thek Kay Pyin before the ship was seized May 21.
It was not possible to independently confirm the account of the woman, who identified herself as Arafa. Like many Rohingya, she uses only one name. But six other villagers said they were among the scores of Rohingya taken off from the boat.
It was not clear why the traffickers would only take the Rohingya off the boat. Matthew Smith, the executive director of the Southeast Asia-based Fortify Rights group, has said in testimony to the U.S. Congress that Myanmar’s security forces are complicit in and profit from the trafficking. The government has dismissed the accusation.
Last week, Reuters reported that at least eight people found on the boat were Rohingya. The government, which had initially said all on board were Bangladeshis, said eight were “Bengalis” from Myanmar, the term it uses for the Rohingya.
Most of Myanmar’s 1.1 million Rohingya Muslims are stateless and live in apartheid-like conditions in Rakhine state. Almost 140,000 were displaced in deadly clashes with majority Buddhists in Rakhine in 2012. They are denied citizenship and have long complained of state-sanctioned discrimination.
About 100,000 have fled overseas since 2012, according to the Arakan Project, a Rohingya advocacy group.
Source: japantimes
