This article is from the source 'guardian' and was first published or seen on . It last changed over 40 days ago and won't be checked again for changes.

You can find the current article at its original source at https://www.theguardian.com/world/2018/apr/03/boat-carrying-rohingya-refugees-arrives-in-malaysia

The article has changed 2 times. There is an RSS feed of changes available.

Version 0 Version 1
Boat carrying Rohingya refugees arrives in Malaysia Monsoons could result in 'enormous deaths' among Rohingya refugees
(about 5 hours later)
A boat carrying dozens of Rohingya from Myanmar has arrived in Malaysia and the members of the stateless Muslim minority will be allowed to enter the country, authorities said. The coming monsoon season could result in “enormous deaths” among Rohingya people from Myanmar living in refugee camps in neighbouring Bangladesh, a group of international advisers has warned, because the camps are not built to withstand storms.
The vessel carrying 56 people was intercepted by Malaysian maritime authorities near the north-western island of Langkawi, said the navy chief Ahmad Kamarulzaman Ahmad Badaruddin. Rights groups say 700,000 mostly Muslim Rohingya have fled violence and crossed the border from Myanmar’s Rakhine state since August and most live in flimsy, bamboo-and-plastic structures perched on what were once forested hills at Cox’s Bazar.
Its arrival came as fears grow about conditions in overcrowded camps for the minority fleeing violence in Myanmar. Nearly 700,000 Rohingya have sought shelter in southern Bangladesh since Myanmar launched a brutal crackdown last August. “We are at this time in a race against time. For us, the monsoons are coming. The camps of almost 1 million people are not built to withstand monsoon,” Kobsak Chutikul, from the advisory group, said at a press conference in Singapore on Tuesday.
“All 56 passengers, mostly children and women, are safe but tired and hungry,” said the navy chief. “The boat and its passengers will be handed over ... to the immigration authorities.” “There will be enormous deaths if all parties do not move to some understanding on repatriation, on aid.”
The navy and coastguard had stepped up patrols in the area after the boat stopped briefly on an island off Thailand’s western coast on Sunday and the passengers said they were en route to Malaysia. The Rohingya are Muslims who live in majority-Buddhist Myanmar. They are often described as "the world's most persecuted minority". 
Few Rohingya migrants have tried to travel south by boat since Thai authorities clamped down on regional trafficking networks in 2015, leaving thousands of migrants abandoned in open waters or jungle camps. Nearly all of Myanmar's 1.1 million Rohingya live in the western coastal state of Rakhine. The government does not recognise them as citizens, effectively rendering them stateless.
Rohingya refugees fleeing to Bangladesh have arrived to find cramped settlements and often squalid conditions in the Cox’s Bazar district. Hundreds of thousands of Rohingya who fled previous waves of persecution are already living in the district. Extremist nationalist movements insist the group are illegal immigrants from Bangladesh, although the Rohingya say they are native to Rakhine state.Rights groups accuse Burmese authorities of ethnic cleansing, systematically forcing Rohingya from the country through violence and persecution, a charge the government has denied.
An agreement to repatriate Rohingya from Bangladesh to Myanmar’s Rakhine state has yet to lead to the return of a single refugee. Because a repatriation deal between the neighbouring countries has been delayed, Bangladesh is racing to prepare new homes on a nearby island, called Bhasan Char, before the monsoons that could arrive later this month.
Many of the Rohingya ensnared in the 2015 boat crisis ended up in Muslim-majority Malaysia and Indonesia because Thailand stuck to a policy of not accepting the vessels. The advisory board for the committee for implementation of the recommendations on Rakhine state was set up by Myanmar last year to advise on ways of adopting the findings of an earlier commission headed by the former UN secretary general Kofi Annan.
There are nearly 70,000 Rohingya refugees and asylum-seekers living in Malaysia, according to the most recent statistics from the UN refugee agency. Computer modelling by the United Nations high commissioner for refugees (UNHCR) shows that more than 100,000 refugees will be threatened by landslides and floods in the coming monsoons. The rains typically begin in April and peak in July, according to the Bangladesh meteorological department.
Chutikul’s comments came as Malaysia intercepted a boat 56 Rohingya refugees from Myanmar off its northern island of Langkawi after a storm.
Malaysia will allow them to enter on humanitarian grounds, with rights groups expecting further attempts at perilous journeys by sea.
The Rohingya fled their homes in Rakhine into Bangladesh after militant attacks in August last year sparked a military crackdown that the United Nations and western countries have said constitutes ethnic cleansing.
Buddhist-majority Myanmar rejects that charge, saying its forces have been waging a legitimate campaign against “terrorists” who attacked government forces.
RohingyaRohingya
MalaysiaMalaysia
Asia PacificAsia Pacific
MyanmarMyanmar
South and Central AsiaSouth and Central Asia
Bangladesh
newsnews
Share on FacebookShare on Facebook
Share on TwitterShare on Twitter
Share via EmailShare via Email
Share on LinkedInShare on LinkedIn
Share on PinterestShare on Pinterest
Share on Google+Share on Google+
Share on WhatsAppShare on WhatsApp
Share on MessengerShare on Messenger
Reuse this contentReuse this content