Myanmar: IOM refugee resettlement tops 67,000
Source: International Organization for Migration (IOM)
Date: 07 Jul 2009
IOM has now resettled 67,000 refugees from Thai refugee camps since 2004. Of these over 50,000 came from Myanmar and nearly 55,000 – over 80% of the total – went to new homes in the United States.
In the first half of 2009 through the end of June, IOM Thailand moved nearly 10,000 refugees accepted for resettlement by the US (7,488), Australia (1,396), Canada (402), Norway (225), Finland (216), Sweden (75), New Zealand (59), Denmark (9) and the Netherlands (4.)
The largest group of 4,281 came from Ban Mae Nai Soi – a refugee camp on the Thai-Myanmar border in Thailand’s northern Mae Hong Son province. A further 1,691 came from Mae La camp, 1,080 from Umpium Mai camp, and 908 from Nu Po camp – all in Tak province to the south, according to IOM Resettlement Coordinator Hans Beckers.
“The programme is still very challenging, partly because the logistics keep getting tougher as we shift our focus from the more accessible camps in Kanchanaburi and Tak provinces to the most remote – like Ban Mae Nai Soi – in Mae Hong Son,” says Beckers.
Since 2004 IOM Thailand’s refugee resettlement programme has sent a total of 54,757 refugees to the US, 5,701 to Australia, 3,559 to Canada, 1,593 to Norway, 1,234 to Finland, 1,163 Sweden, 453 to New Zealand, 424 to the Netherlands, 276 to the UK, 110 to Denmark and 97 to Ireland.
While IOM plays no part in selecting which refugees are accepted, its global responsibilities in refugee resettlement include medical screening, which comprises physical examinations and chest x-rays for tuberculosis (TB) that is rife in the camps. If laboratory tests confirm the disease, IOM medical staff provide the lengthy treatment needed until the refugee is fit to travel with his or her family to their new home.
IOM Thailand’s medical and laboratory staff are now acknowledged to be at the forefront of refugee TB screening worldwide. In June former Chief Medical Officer Dr Tom O’Rourke and Regional Laboratory Manager Warren Jones were honoured by the US Centers for Disease Control (CDC) as co-authors of a scientific paper on the multidrug-resistant form of the disease among Hmong refugees leaving Thailand for the US in 2005.
IOM also provides a brief pre-departure cultural orientation programme for the refugees – some of whom have spent their whole lives in remote refugee camps – to prepare them for the trip and their new lives in resettlement countries.
When the refugees are issued with Thai exit permits, IOM arranges their flights and buses them to Bangkok’s Suvarnabhumi airport. Depending on the composition of each group, IOM also provides an IOM medical or social escort to accompany them on the trip.
IOM’s 34-year history of refugee resettlement from Thailand began in 1975 in the aftermath of the Vietnam war, when it helped nearly half a million Indochinese refugees from Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia to leave the country and start new lives abroad. It works closely with the Royal Thai government, UNHCR and the governments of resettlement countries.
Refugee policy is a human rights issue, not a law and order one
The irrational obsession with pulling out all stops to prevent asylum seekers arriving by boat in Australia is placing our country at risk of being party to human rights abuses on refugees much worse than those of the Howard era.
This week , the federal government is taking the unusual step of having the Prime Minister and Foreign Minister conduct a joint diplomatic meeting with the Malaysian Prime Minister to “deepen co-operation with Malaysia to help crack down on people-smuggling.”
Unfortunately ‘cracking down on people smuggling’ can easily mean cracking down on asylum seekers and refugees. Malaysia’s record in this record is already worse than appalling. Unless the Australian government explicitly indicates its total opposition to this abuse and works to encourage Malaysia to bring them to a halt, it is quite likely that our strong urgings for Malaysia to tackle people smugglers will be used as a justification for even worse abuse of asylum seekers, refugees and other undocumented migrants.
I’ve written before on these horrific human abuses happening in our region. In The Age last week, Tom Allard, writing from Malaysia, also highlighted some of them.
Asylum seekers, including those registered as refugees, have been thrown in prison or detention camps.
There have also been cases, according to a recent US Senate report, of refugees — mostly those fleeing Burma — who have been sold to people traffickers and forced into prostitution or slave labour on fishing boats or plantations if they do not pay Malaysian authorities up to $575 for their freedom.
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The UNHCR deputy representative in Malaysia, Henrik Nordentoft, says there are “great difficulties” for asylum seekers in Malaysia and that the boats intercepted recently along the route between Malaysia, Indonesia and Australia are “probably the tip of the iceberg”.
“You realise that there is desperation,” Mr Nordentoft says. ”You could queue and wait for years, your resources will be dragged, your protection is not guaranteed, your children don’t have a future. …. You can easily see why people are saying they are going to move on.”
Yet last week, we also had the extraordinary spectacle of the Malaysian High Commission to Australia, Salman Ahmad, denying his government was “soft on illegal migrants” or that Malaysia was a convenient transit point for people-smugglers.
“You have to understand that we (Malaysia) are doing our very best (to curb) this movement of illegals from wherever they are to our country. And to say we are a transit point is to imply that we are lax, and that is not correct.
The headline of that article – “Malaysia not soft on boatpeople” – has to be a strong contender for biggest understatement of the year. It is the equivalent of “The Pope not soft on abortion” or “Iranian government not soft on demonstrators.”
The atrocious mistreatment of asylum seekers and refugees in Malaysia is long-standing and well-documented. In addition to those already mentioned, Human Rights Watch has found that refugees and asylum seekers in Malaysia are subject to arrest, detention, and deportation – the most fundamental breach of the Refugee Convention. Malaysia does not support the Refugee Convention, but Australia does and should not be supporting or encouraging other governments in allowing or carrying out such breaches.
Not only have Australians been mostly silent on these human rights abuses, it seems we may be happy to cooperate with the government that tolerates such activities in order to try to stop some of the victims of this abuse from getting to Australia.
Our public debate on the complex issues surrounding refugees, asylum seekers, forced migration and people smugglers is in danger of being reduced to grossly over-simplified assessments of policies as being either ‘soft’ or ‘hard’. It is also time we recognised the clear legal distinction between ‘people smuggling’ and ‘people trafficking’, which are related but very different types of activity.
There are no easy or complete solutions to this issue, but any solution which involves major human rights abuses should never be acceptable to Australians.
Hostages and slaves: Human trafficking on the Malaysian-Thai border
2 July 2009
Human trafficking in the region is one of the serious concerns facing ASEAN, according to this article written under the 2009 Southeast Asian Press Alliance Journalism Fellowhip Program.
By Wai Moe
Alor Setar
, Malaysia - “Malaysian migration officers sold me to a human trafficking gang located near the Thai-Malaysian border,” said Lwin Ko, one of thousands of victims of human trafficking in Malaysia.
Like many other Burmese migrant workers and refugees in Malaysia, he was arrested for illegal entry into the country. After processing in an immigration detention center, he said, immigration officers transferred him directly to a gang of human traffickers, who treated him as a “hostage,” or slave, to be held for a lucrative ransom.
Migrant workers are apprehended and led to an open area by civilian security volunteers to have their documents inspected during an immigration raid in Kuala Lumpur in 2005.
If no ransom was forthcoming after a few weeks, Lwin Ko would be passed on like many others to work as a crewman on a fishing boat or, for women, to work as household servants or as prostitutes in brothels.
When police arrested him, Lwin Ko, 17 years old at the time, was on his way to work in a Malaysian factory. “I did not have any money,” he said. “If I had about RM 100 [US $28], I could have paid the Malay police to release me.”
After serving six months in prison, he was transferred to a Malaysian immigration detention camp in Juru in Pulau Pinang Province, one of the most notorious detention centers in the country.
After one week, Malaysian immigration officers placed him in a truck with more than a dozen other Burmese migrants.
“We drove for three hours to the border town of Alor Setar,” Lwin Ko recalled. “The truck stopped at a roadside shop near a rubber plantation, where officers had a meeting with traffickers. Then we were moved to a traffickers’ truck where we were put with about 70 Burmese from the Juru detention camp.”
Lwin Ko received money from friends and paid RM 2,300 [$653] to return to his job in Kuala Lampur.
Recently, six victims of human trafficking in Malaysia told their stories to “The Irrawaddy“. Each told a similar tale, confirming that corrupt Malaysian immigration officers, organized trafficking gangs, and corrupt Thai officials, work in tandem to transfer hapless illegal migrants to human traffickers.
After leaving detention centers, luckless migrants eventually end up in buildings or homes along the Thai-Malaysia border owned by the gangs.
None knew the amount of money the traffickers paid the corrupt officers, but it’s estimated to be somewhere between RM 700 to 1,000 [$198- $286] for each person sold.
One of the victims, Win Tun, 26, who is from central Burma and who worked in Kuala Lumpur, said: “We were arrested by police and immigration officers, and they placed us in the hands of traffickers.”
The gangs told the trafficking victims they had to pay RM 1,900 to 2,300 [$539-$653] if they wanted to return to Kuala Lumpur or Burma. Most gang members, they said, were ethnic Mon from Burma. Gang leaders, however, were usually Thai or Malaysian, who appeared to be well connected to local Thai or Malaysian authorities. Some leaders were reportedly officers in either immigration or police services.
Sithu Aung, 30, who is from Rangoon and worked in Kuala Lumpur, recalled what happened when he arrived at the traffickers’ building.
“They let me call my friends in Kuala Lumpur to ask for money,” he said. “They asked me for RM 2,300 to take me from that border town back to Kuala Lumpur.”
Unlucky migrants who cannot afford to pay for their freedom are usually sold to owners of Thai fishing boats, where they work in slave-like conditions.
According to a Burmese man, a former member of a trafficking gang who is now in hiding in Kuala Lumpur, after Malaysian immigration officers sell victims to a trafficking gang, the gangs usually wait one or two weeks for money to arrive from a victim’s family or friends.
If no money comes by the third week, said the man, who goes by the name Wanna, the hostages are usually passed on to be sold into the fishing industry or into household service or prostitution.
“Taking an illegal migrant is like taking a hostage,” said Wanna. “If they have money, they cannot be freed until we are paid.
If they don’t have money, they will be sold somewhere else.”
Traffickers have no fear of authorities, he said, because immigration officials see illegal migrants as “second-class humans.”
Latheeffa Koya, a well-known Malaysian human rights lawyer, said the human trafficking business along the border is nothing more than a form of slave trade in the contemporary world. The problem is transnational, she said, and to be remedied, all nations in the region must cooperate with each other.
“The reasons behind the problems are corrupt law enforcement and xenophobia,” she said. “The Malaysian people and the media have to know about this ugly issue.”
Why are Burmese the main victims in the slave trade on the Malaysian-Thai border?
Aegile Fernandez, the coordinator of Tenaganita, a Malaysian human rights group, explained: “Burmese are highly valuable goods [for traffickers] because as refugees they are not accepted by their own country.”
Some victims who are sold to traffickers had even registered with the UNHCR, the UN refugee agency. But Malaysia has not signed the UN refugee convention, she said, so it goes unrecognized and is of no help.
“We are sad to see that Malaysia has high corruption,” Aegile Fernanadez said. “Officials are so greedy for money. They look at illegal migrants as a valuable resource.”
The situation facing Burmese migrants in Malaysia, who total an estimated 500,000 people, is quite different from migrants from other countries in the region who work in the country. Malaysian human rights groups say that if Malaysian authorities arrest undocumented migrants from Indonesia, the Philippines or Bangladesh, they are returned back to their country through government-to-government cooperation.
However, the Burmese military regime is unwilling to cooperate with any country which has detained illegal Burmese migrants. When faced with immigration problems, even legal migrant workers who are in Malaysia via agents cannot get routine help from the Burmese embassy in Kuala Lumpur.
Sometimes Burmese embassies in Thailand and Malaysia even publish notices in Burmese that read: “Come in person, but don’t come with a problem.”
Of course, human traffickers operate on a two-way street, and also smuggle people out of Burma through Thailand and into Malaysia. All undocumented Burmese migrants interviewed by “The Irrawaddy” said that they paid up to 100,000 kyat [about US $100] to trafficking agents in Rangoon or Kawthoung, in southern Burma, to be smuggled into Malaysia.
Traffickers in Kawthoung transport migrants to the Thai town of Ranong by boat, where they then depart by bus or vehicle to cross the Malaysian border.
“I was put in a box that they placed in the baggage area of a bus,” said Myint Lwin, who recalled his journey into Malaysia.
Traffickers clearly have the help of local police and immigration officials, said one migrant.
“I saw people in uniform help traffickers in smuggling people from Thailand to Malaysia,” he said. “How else can we come to Malaysia through so many checkpoints?”
How to combat the human trafficking issue in Malaysia and all of Southeast Asia is a major issue for Malaysian authorities as well as the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean). Human rights advocates and analysts say all Asean nations have a clear obligation under the new Asean charter.
Migrant issues in the region are recognized as an urgent problem that must be resolved, said Usana Berananda of the department of Asean Affairs in Thailand’s foreign ministry.
But recognizing a problem and taking concrete actions to solve it are not the same. Migrants and analysts are skeptical, pointing out that officials in many Asean countries still view migrants as an enemy, even though many significant industries and businesses in the region survive by employing a migrant workforce, often illegal.
“I do not see any good prospect for Burmese migrants and refugees unless governments in the region give up their bad policies on migrants,” Aegile Fernandez said. “We need the governments to take real action against corrupt immigration officers. However, it will be difficult because the immigration department is also the government itself.”
While activists and honest government officials struggle with the human trafficking problem in the region, average Burmese migrant workers in Malaysia simply hope they can avoid the corrupt officials and traffickers.
“I need to be aware of everything,” said Myint Lwin, who was sold to traffickers in late 2008. “Everything depends on karma. I am just praying to secure myself from arrest and human traffickers in the future.”
Stories such as Myint Lwin’s were outlined in a US State Department report this year, citing credible evidence of Malaysian immigration officials’ involvement in human trafficking. The report estimated that only 20 percent of the victims sold to traffickers by Malaysian officers are able to pay for their return.
The unlucky people who cannot pay are passed on into a pitiless world of exploitation.
In June, the Malaysian government denied the US allegations in the report, issuing a statement calling the allegations “baseless.”
“The government has already initiated a few internal investigations, but [the accusations are] baseless,” said Malaysian Home Ministry Secretary Gen Mahmood Adam.
Such words ring hollow to the Burmese victims now toiling on Thai fishing boats or in houses of prostitution.
Registration For Illegal Burmese, Lao And Cambodian Migrant Workers, Open for July only…probably last chance to do it
We’ve all heard and probably know migrant workers from these countries who are working under the radar here in Thailand. Most of them are doing the work that most Thai’s don’t want to do themselves, and most are doing it for minimum wage, under the constant threat arrest, having to pay a relatively large bribe, and if they can’t muster the money, deportation.
This month (July 2009) the Thai government has opened up a registration processes so that illegal workers can be formerly registered to stay and work in Thailand. This is likely to be the last year which this is done in this way, as next year Thailand will move to a new, and undefined, system of ‘passports’ to register undocumented workers. So there is no guarantee when the Thai government will ‘open their books’ to officially accept more migrant labour.
While the system isn’t ideal it offers migrant workers legitimate documentation to stay in Thailand, as well as access to the public health system.
The process is outlined below in english, which is fairly comprehensive.
http://www.mapfoundationcm.org/eng/PDF/eng…stration_09.pdf
The only step this document misses out on (and which is the first ‘real’ step) is that the migrant worker must have a Thai national prepared to hire them. The Thai national must also have a ‘quota’ allocated by their local labour office, before that migrant worker can be registered.
Nevertheless, the system is fairly painless (going through the process for our maid as we speak, and have done it before).
Tamils’ transit to Australia, ‘land of freedom’
Among the 100,000 refugees in Malaysia, many Sri Lankans are ready to risk all on a clandestine voyage into the Indian Ocean, writes Tom Allard in Kuala Lumpur.
Rameshwaren, a young Tamil asylum seeker, speaks quietly, with a painful melancholy that belies his years. “I feel castrated,” he says, casting his eyes up from the floor. “All of this is unbearable. I am on the edge of a mental breakdown.”
One of an estimated 100,000 refugees living precariously in Malaysia – there are 16 million recognised asylum seekers worldwide – the Sri Lankan’s helplessness is a frustration felt around the world. Out of every 250 people forced to flee their countries because of war, famine and persecution, only one can expect to be resettled as a refugee this year.
This is why Rameshwaren is prepared to chance his arm and take a boat to Australia. “I can’t return to Sri Lanka but there is no life for me here in Malaysia,” he says. “I cannot work here legally, there is no medical [care], there is no education. I don’t think that the UN will be able to resettle us. So we have to find somewhere else, we have to find some way to get there by ourselves. That is why I want to take a boat to Australia.
“It is a land of freedom. It is somewhere safe for me, my mother, my sisters and brother.”
The UNHCR’s deputy representative in Malaysia, Henrik Nordentoft, says there are “great difficulties” for asylum seekers in Malaysia and that the boats intercepted recently along the route between Malaysia, Indonesia and Australia are “probably the tip of the iceberg”.
As the Herald reported this week, Indonesian authorities fear as many as 10,000 asylum seekers in Malaysia could take the journey in the near future.
With Afghans and Pakistanis, Sri Lankans make up an increasing share of the asylum seekers paying thousands of dollars to reach Australia. Almost 200 Sri Lankans arrived last weekend, taking a vessel direct from Malaysia to Christmas Island.
Indonesia looms large for many Australians as the staging point for boat people crossing into its territory, yet almost all of them come to Malaysia first, either flying directly to Kuala Lumpur or, more recently, landing in Singapore and heading across by boat.
For Sri Lankans, a large Tamil population here provides a community to tap into. Afghans and Pakistanis similarly find support from a considerable Middle Eastern population and, as people from Islamic countries, get relatively easy access on tourist visas.
But the other attraction is a vast network of people traffickers operating in Malaysia. In its annual survey released last month, the US State Department put Malaysia on a blacklist of 16 nations judged to be the worst for people trafficking.
Malaysia, the report said, “does not fully comply with the minimum standards for the elimination of trafficking and is not making significant efforts to do so”. Moreover, there were “credible” reports that immigration officials and police were involved in the networks.
There is a long-standing, and extremely busy, trade in shipping illegal immigrants between Malaysia and Indonesia, primarily servicing the 1 million illegal Indonesians who work in Malaysia. There is a very popular route used by people smugglers from Kuala Lumpur to Indonesia, a journey that can take less than four hours.
It involves an hour-long drive to Port Klang, followed by a 30-minute ferry to Pulau Ketam, off Malaysia’s west coast, that requires no immigration checks. From there, dozens of fishermen in the prosperous village will take anyone willing to pay and drop them off in Sumatra in Indonesia, less than two hours away.
Yet for all the infrastructure, many refugees find Malaysia a profoundly unwelcoming place. It does not recognise the United Nations convention for refugees and its corrupt and sometimes brutal immigration officials, police and a paramilitary civilian volunteer corps known as RELA are accused of frequently harassing migrants, even those with United Nations High Commission for Refugees cards.
It is another motivation for people to jump what is a very long queue for resettlement by the UNHCR and go to a people smuggler.
Ravindran, another Sri Lankan Tamil, says the constant harassment means he is reluctant to leave the decrepit, two-bedroom home his family shares with two other Tamil refugee families in Satapak, a suburb of Kuala Lumpur.
“When you go out, they ask to see your UNHCR card. They say they will cut the card up if you don’t give them money,” he says. “The police, RELA, any of the authorities will do this. They know I’m not a Malaysian Tamil. It’s obvious by the way I look.”
Asylum seekers, including those registered as refugees, have been thrown into prison or detention camps. There have also been cases, according to a recent US Senate report, of refugees – mostly those fleeing Burma – who have been sold to people traffickers and forced into prostitution or slave labour on fishing boats or plantations if they do not pay Malaysian authorities up to $575 for their freedom.
The Malaysian Government has said it is investigating the claims, which it initially rejected as false.
Ravindran says he has been to the Australian embassy seeking assistance. “They said it is out of their hands and go to the UNHCR. Then the UNHCR says it’s out of their hands. It’s a hopeless situation. I’ve heard about these boats [to Australia]. We would take them if we could but I don’t have the money.”
Source: The Sydney Morning Herald
Ban Ki Moon in Burma: The Chance for a New Beginning
When UN Secretary-General Ban Ki Moon meets the military dictatorship in Burma today he will have the whole world with him.
His mission, to persuade the junta to release all political prisoners and engage with democracy, is critical to the future of the Burmese people.
But it is also a crucial moment for the international community.
In recent weeks, we have seen an extraordinary consensus around the world in support of all those forced to suffer under the Burmese regime.
The UN, the EU, and ASEAN have all made clear the need for urgent change. More than 45 Heads of State have added their voices to the call.
How we respond to the injustices in Burma will send a message about our resolution to tackle similar abuses across the globe.
Political and humanitarian conditions in the country continue to deteriorate.
When over 140,000 were killed and millions made destitute by Cyclone Nargis last year the world’s efforts to help were resisted, a peaceful uprising by monks in 2007 was violently quashed, ethnic minorities are persecuted and under armed attack.
The media are muzzled, freedom of speech and assembly are non-existent and the number of political prisoners has doubled to more than 2000.
As Secretary-General Ban arrives, the most high profile of them — Aung San Suu Kyi — faces further persecution from the Generals as her sham trial resumes.
She has long been a symbol of hope and defiance during her 14 years as a prisoner of conscience.
She is a most courageous woman. In those long years, she has barely seen her two sons — yet is resolute in her faith in democracy and the Burmese people.
Her refusal to buckle in the face of tyranny is an inspiration.
I call on the regime to mark Ban Ki Moon’s arrival by immediately halting her trial, which makes a mockery of justice, and ending her detention which undermines their credibility in the eyes of the world.
But while hugely significant, this alone would not be the sole measure of progress.
Only agreement to release all political prisoners, start a genuine dialogue with the opposition and ethnic groups will give any credibility to the elections in 2010.
I hope that Ban Ki Moon can convince the Generals to take the first steps. A serious offer is on the table: the international community will work with Burma if the Generals are prepared to embark on a genuine transition to democracy.
But if the Burmese regime refuses to engage, the international community must be prepared to respond robustly.
We should not rest until Aung San Suu Kyi — and all those who share her commitment to a better and brighter future for Burma — are able to play their rightful role in it.
The Burmese people have been condemned to nearly half a century of conflict, poverty and isolation. It is time to give them the chance of a new beginning.
The regime can choose to ignore the clamour for change. Or it can choose the path of reform as the region, and the world, have urged.
Today can be the start.
UN chief to return to Myanmar on same day opposition leader Suu Kyi’s trial resumes
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UN chief to return to Myanmar day of Suu Kyi trial
UNITED NATIONS — U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon will return to Myanmar later this week on a diplomatic bid to win the release of Aung San Suu Kyi just as the imprisoned pro-democracy leader’s trial resumes, U.N. officials announced Monday.
The U.N. chief decided at the last minute to accept an invitation from Myanmar’s military junta for a two-day visit on Friday and Saturday. He’ll arrive in Yangon, the commercial capital, the same day that Suu Kyi’s trial resumes.
He’ll also try to meet with her, Ban’s spokeswoman, Michele Montas, said at U.N. headquarters.
The Nobel Peace laureate is in Myanmar’s Insein prison and being tried on charges of violating the terms of her house arrest after an uninvited American man swam to her closely guarded lakeside home last month and stayed two days.
Montas said the U.N. chief plans to raise “a broad range of issues” while meeting with the ruling generals, including Senior Gen. Than Shwe in Naypyitaw, the remote administrative capital the junta moved its government offices to in 2005.
Ban believes that “three of the most important issues for the future of Myanmar cannot be left unaddressed at this juncture of the country’s political process.” They are gaining the release of all political prisoners including Suu Kyi; resumption of dialogue between the military government and its opposition; and creating conditions for credible elections, Montas said.
He also wants to “consolidate and build on” humanitarian aid efforts that were the reason for his visit last year in the aftermath of devastating Cyclone Nargis.
To lay the groundwork for this visit, and to help him decide whether to go, Ban sent his envoy, Ibrahim Gambari, on his eighth such trip there since 2006. Gambari, who was welcomed Friday by Myanmar’s opposition, has met with junta leaders and Suu Kyi before but with little effect in nudging the military regime toward talks with the pro-democracy movement.
Human Rights Watch and some governments have tried to dissuade Ban from visiting the nation also known as Burma, saying he could be exploited by the junta and his visit portrayed as somehow legitimizing Suu Kyi’s trial.
British Foreign Office Minister Ivan Lewis said Monday his government and other nations’ leaders had encouraged Ban to go “and expectations are understandably high” with Suu Kyi’s trial underway.
Ban is uniquely well-placed to seek changes from Myanmar and “his personal engagement now offers the regime the opportunity to respond to the international community’s demands,” Lewis said.
“There is no doubt,” he said, “that release of Aung San Suu Kyi and of the other 2,100 political prisoners, would begin a long-overdue transformation of Burma’s relationship with the international community.”
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// Filed under Legal Proceedings, News | Tags: Asia, Myanmar, Southeast Asia, Un-un-myanmar-visit, United Nations | Comment Below
Myanmar court rejects appeal to reinstate 2 key witnesses for Aung San Suu Kyi in trialJune 29th, 2009 Myanmar appeals court bars 2 witnesses for Suu KyiYANGON, Myanmar — Myanmar’s highest court rejected an appeal Monday by Aung San Suu Kyi’s lawyers to reinstate two key witnesses in a trial that could send the pro-democracy leader to prison for five years. High Court judge Tin Aung Aye rejected the appeal because it was “intended to disturb and delay the trial,” court officials said on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak to the media.
Aung San Suu Kyi’s lawyers confident that defense witnesses will be reinstatedJune 9th, 2009 Myanmar court set to rule on witnesses for Suu KyiYANGON, Myanmar — Lawyers for Myanmar opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi expressed hope Tuesday that a court would accept their request to reinstate three defense witnesses at a trial that has sparked global outrage. Security was tightened at the Yangon Divisional Court ahead of the ruling.
Myanmar court delays Suu Kyi’s trial for week over efforts to reinstate defense witnessesJune 5th, 2009 Aung San Suu Kyi’s trial delayed a week in MyanmarYANGON, Myanmar — The trial of Myanmar opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi on charges of violating conditions of her house arrest was delayed for a week over efforts to reinstate three defense witnesses, one of her lawyers said Friday. The court adjourned Suu Kyi’s trial until next Friday while a higher court hears a request by her attorneys to reinstate the witnesses who were earlier barred from testifying, lawyer Nyan Win said.
Aung San Suu Kyi’s house is free, but she isn’tJune 15th, 2009 YANGON – Myanmar’s junta has dropped its guard over opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi’s compound in Yangon since her house detention officially ended May 27, but she has meanwhile been transferred to Insein Prison, opposition sources said Monday. “Daw (Mrs) Aung San Suu Kyi’s house is already free from control by the authorities,” Nyan Win, one of Suu Kyi’s lawyers, said.
Politicians, rights activists demand Suu Kyi’s releaseMay 27th, 2009 NEW DELHI – Political leaders, rights activists and filmmakers from Indian and Myanmar Wednesday condemned the house arrest of Nobel laureate Aung San Suu Kyi and demanded her immediate and unconditional release. The pioneer of the democratic movement, Suu Kyi was under house arrest for almost two decades in Myanmar and to be released Wednesday but is being now tried for violating the terms of her detention.
Myanmar court allows Suu Kyi final appeal to reinstate witnesses in trialJune 17th, 2009 Myanmar court allows Suu Kyi final witness appealYANGON, Myanmar — Myanmar’s highest court said Wednesday it will allow a final appeal by opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi’s defense lawyers for the reinstatement of two key witnesses at her trial, her lawyer said. Defense lawyer Nyan Win called the ruling “good news” and said the High Court was expected to set a date for the appeal on Friday.
Lawyer: American had no criminal intent by swimming to Suu Kyi’s houseJune 3rd, 2009 American on trial in Myanmar: no criminal intentYANGON, Myanmar — An American facing trial for sneaking into the home of Myanmar opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi should receive a light sentence since he had no criminal intent and was not seeking publicity, his lawyer said Wednesday. John W. Yettaw is being tried along with Suu Kyi, who is accused of allegedly violating the terms of her house arrest by allowing the American to stay for two days after he swam to her compound.
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UN chief arrives in Myanmar to press junta
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YANGON – UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon arrived in Myanmar Friday for a two-day official visit during which he will press for the release of all political prisoners including opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi.
Ban and his entourage arrived at Yangon International Airport, stopping over briefly in the old capital before flying on to the junta’s new headquarters in Naypyitaw, 350 km north of Yangon.
There he is scheduled to meet Myanmar’s military supremo Senior General Than Shwe, and 25 representatives from political parties, including four leaders from the National League for Democracy (NLD) opposition party, officials said.
It was unclear whether Ban would be allowed to meet opposition leader Suu Kyi, who is currently being held at Yangon’s infamous Insein Prison.
Suu Kyi is on trial for breaking the terms of her detention by allowing US national John William Yettaw to swim into her lakeside home-cum-prison May 3 and spend two nights in her compound.
A special court set up at Insein Prison was scheduled to hear a defence witness in the Suu Kyi case Friday, but the hearing was postponed until July 10.
Court officials said the hearing was postponed because the Supreme Court had yet to pass over necessary documents, but it happened to coincide with the arrival of Ban.
Ban last visited Myanmar in May 2008, to hasten international aid to the country in the wake of Cyclone Nargis, which killed up to 150,000 people.
Ban’s talks with Myanmar’s senior leadership are expected to focus on a plea for the release of all political prisoners including Suu Kyi; resumption of dialogue between the government and opposition; and the need to create conditions conducive to credible elections planned in 2010.
“I will try to use this visit as an opportunity to raise in the strongest possible terms and convey the concerns of the international community of the United Nations to the highest authorities of the Myanmar government,” Ban told a press conference in Tokyo Thursday.
“Three of most important benchmarks would be: first of all, they should release all political prisoners including Aung San Suu Kyi; they should immediately resume the dialogue between the government and opposition leaders; and they should also create an atmosphere, political as well as a legal framework, conducive to the credible election which needs to be taken next year in a most objective, transparent and democratic manner,” he added.
Observers believe it is highly unlikely that Than Shwe will agree to release Suu Kyi prior to the 2010 polls.
The first day of Ban’s visit will coincide with the resumption of the trial of Suu Kyi on charges of violating her house arrest, by allowing a US citizen to swim to her lakeside residence in Yangon.
Suu Kyi’s case, being held at a special court set up in Yangon’s Insein Prison, is scheduled to resume Friday with testimony from defence witness Khin Moe Moe, an attorney.
The trial began May 11. While the prosecution was allowed to present 14 witnesses in the first week, the defence was initially allowed only one. Later, Khin Moe Moe was permitted to testify.
Critics say the military junta is using the case as a pretext to keep the 1991 Nobel peace laureate in jail during a politically sensitive period, leading up to next year’s general election.
Suu Kyi’s National League for Democracy won the 1990 general election by a landslide but has been blocked from power by Myanmar’s junta for the past 19 years.
The new trial of Suu Kyi, whose most recent six-year house arrest sentence expired May 27, has sparked a chorus of protests from world leaders and statements of concern from its regional allies in the Association of South-East Asian Nations.
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UN chief meets Myanmar junta chief (Second Lead)
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YANGON – UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon met Myanmar’s military leader Friday on an official visit that aimed at pressing for the release of all political prisoners, including opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi.
According to Myanmar’s state-run television, Ban held talks with Senior General Than Shwe in Naypyitaw, the military’s headquarters in central Myanmar.
No details of their talks were provided.
Ban and his entourage arrived at Yangon International Airport Friday morning, stopping over briefly in the old capital before flying on to Naypyitaw, 350 km north of Yangon.
Besides meeting Than Shwe, the UN chief was scheduled to meet 25 representatives from political parties, including four leaders from the National League for Democracy (NLD) opposition party, officials said.
It was unclear whether Ban would be allowed to meet with opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi, who is currently being held at Yangon’s infamous Insein Prison. On Saturday, he will return to Yangon.
The Nobel Peace Prize laureate is on trial for breaking the terms of her detention by allowing US national John William Yettaw to swim into her lakeside home-cum-prison May 3 and spend two nights in her compound.
A special court set up at Insein Prison was scheduled to hear a defence witness in the Suu Kyi case Friday, but the hearing was postponed until July 10.
Court officials said the hearing was postponed because the Supreme Court had yet to pass over necessary documents, but it happened to coincide with the arrival of Ban.
Ban last visited Myanmar in May, 2008, to hasten international aid to the country in the wake of Cyclone Nargis, which killed up to 150,000 people.
Ban’s talks with Myanmar’s senior leadership are expected to focus on a plea for the release of all political prisoners including Suu Kyi; resumption of dialogue between the government and opposition; and the need to create conditions conducive to credible elections planned in 2010.
“I will try to use this visit as an opportunity to raise in the strongest possible terms and convey the concerns of the international community of the United Nations to the highest authorities of the Myanmar government,” Ban told a press conference in Tokyo Thursday.
“Three of the most important benchmarks would be: first of all, they should release all political prisoners including Aung San Suu Kyi; they should immediately resume the dialogue between the government and opposition leaders; and they should also create an atmosphere, political as well as a legal framework, conducive to the credible election which needs to be taken next year in a most objective, transparent and democratic manner,” he added.
Observers believe it is highly unlikely that Than Shwe will agree to release Suu Kyi prior to the 2010 polls.
The trial began May 11.
Suu Kyi’s National League for Democracy won the 1990 general election by a landslide but has been blocked from power by Myanmar’s junta for the past 19 years.
The new trial of Suu Kyi, whose most recent six-year house arrest sentence expired May 27, has sparked a chorus of protests from world leaders and statements of concern from its regional allies in the Association of South-East Asian Nations.
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Southeast Asia to Somerdale
By JOSEPH GIDJUNIS • Courier-Post Staff • July 3,2009
DENISE HENHOEFFER/Courier-Post
Plu Reh, 23, is the 50,000th Myanmar refugee to resettle in another country. He and his family arrived in Philadelphia on Wednesday and moved into an apartment in Somerdale.
SOMERDALE — One of South Jersey’s newest Americans, 23-year-old Plu Reh, arrived this week, just in time to celebrate the country’s July Fourth holiday and its meaning of freedom.
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Though he’s not completely sure what the holiday is all about, he’s eager to experience it.
But what Reh doesn’t realize is that he embodies the principles essential to Independence Day.
After living 13 years in protected United Nations Refugee camps on the Thailand-Burma border, (now called Myanmar) he seeks one thing for himself, his wife and daughter — freedom. The ethnic Karenni family left the Mai Nai Soi refugee camp, also known as Site 1, in Thailand’s northern Mae Hong Son province, on Sunday, according to the International Organization for Migration.
Reh taught health and social studies to third- and fourth-graders in one of the primary schools in the camp, which still shelters some 18,000 mainly Karenni refugees from Myanmar, according to the IOM.
He arrived at Philadelphia International Airport Wednesday, with little more than the clothes on his back, but not as a Burmese. He was an American seeking freedom to think, freedom to speak, freedom to travel and freedom to learn.
Reh is the 50,000th Myanmar refugee the United Nation has resettled in another country, and he and his family now call home a modest apartment in Somerdale.
“This is a good situation now. We have freedom to do what we want. We have the right to write, the right to speak. We can see different people,” Reh said through a family member translator.
Reh said he hopes to continue his education in the United States.
“In the refugee camps, we are close to the military. You cannot go back into Burman. They destroyed the villages. They took everything. Our lands. We cannot go back home. We could not leave. So our minds became narrow,” Reh said through a translator. “So I come here. I think this could be a good way for me to have a life with my family.”
Reh, his wife Pray Meh, 20, and 2-year-old daughter Naw Gay Doh, are three of nearly 350 Burmese refugees the Diocese of Camden will resettle in South Jersey in 2009, said John Marcantuono, the diocese’s director of Refugee and Immigration Services.
Between 1.5 million and 2 million illegal Burmese migrants are in Thailand with another 112,000 in nine camps on the Thai-Myanmar border, according to the U.S. State Department and United Nations.
Since the late 1980s, a military junta has refused to hand over power to victorious democratic opposition parties, according to the Central Intelligence Agency’s Web Site.
In August 2007, tens of thousands of Burmese, including pro-democracy activists and Buddhist monks, marched in protest of increased fuel prices imposed by the military junta. But the government blocked the protests and killed at least 13 people and arrested many other participants. And there is little hope of returning to their native country, according to the CIA and UN.
As more and more Burmese fled, humanitarian needs grew. Since 2006, Camden’s Diocese has been helping resettle the refugees, and half to three-fourths of the Diocese’s annual 400-person caseload are from Myanmar, Marcantuono said.
Each of the refugees is checked extensively for medical and criminal backgrounds by the U.S. State Department, and then handed over to a larger national group. For Reh and his family, his resettlement case was given to the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops which sent him to Camden County.
About 10 towns in Camden County have been the hosts for these former Burmese, including Somerdale, Oaklyn, Pennsauken, Stratford, Audubon, East Camden, Magnolia, Haddon Heights, Collingswood and Lawnside, Marcantuono said. About 25 percent of the Burmese refugees handled by the diocese are also sent to towns in and around Atlantic City.
For the next year, Reh and his family are legal residents who may work and go to school in the United States. They receive a few thousand dollars and food stamps to cover rent, language classes, food and job assistance. After six months, Reh is expected to have a job, and the family must begin the application process for legal permanent residency.
But it’s rarely that simple, Marcantuono said.
“Many landlords and employers say they want nothing to do with these refugees,” Marcantuono said. “But I remind them — we’re all descendents of immigrants.”
Marcantuono paired Reh and his family in Somerdale because two months earlier, the brother-in-law of Reh’s wife, Phary Reh, 27, resettled there through the diocese. Khin Myazin, a Burmese case worker for the diocese said it’s important to link families and allow them to pool their money to meet their needs as they make America their new home.
This year, the International Organization for Migration Thailand has resettled more than 7,000 refugees accepted for resettlement from nine camps, according to information from the organization. The operation, which includes medical screening, cultural orientation and travel arrangements to 11 resettlement countries, follows more than 17,000 departures in 2008, 14,600 in 2007 and more than 64,000 since 2004. The largest number of refugees have been accepted by the United State; other resettlement countries include Australia, Canada, Denmark, Finland, Ireland, New Zealand, Norway, Sweden, the Netherlands and the United Kingdom.
Reach Joseph Gidjunis at (856) 486-2604 or jgidjunis@gannett.com
Hostages and slaves: Human trafficking on the Malaysian-Thai border
2 July 2009
Human trafficking in the region is one of the serious concerns facing ASEAN, according to this article written under the 2009 Southeast Asian Press Alliance Journalism Fellowhip Program.
By Wai Moe
Alor Setar
, Malaysia - “Malaysian migration officers sold me to a human trafficking gang located near the Thai-Malaysian border,” said Lwin Ko, one of thousands of victims of human trafficking in Malaysia.
Like many other Burmese migrant workers and refugees in Malaysia, he was arrested for illegal entry into the country. After processing in an immigration detention center, he said, immigration officers transferred him directly to a gang of human traffickers, who treated him as a “hostage,” or slave, to be held for a lucrative ransom.
Migrant workers are apprehended and led to an open area by civilian security volunteers to have their documents inspected during an immigration raid in Kuala Lumpur in 2005.
If no ransom was forthcoming after a few weeks, Lwin Ko would be passed on like many others to work as a crewman on a fishing boat or, for women, to work as household servants or as prostitutes in brothels.
When police arrested him, Lwin Ko, 17 years old at the time, was on his way to work in a Malaysian factory. “I did not have any money,” he said. “If I had about RM 100 [US $28], I could have paid the Malay police to release me.”
After serving six months in prison, he was transferred to a Malaysian immigration detention camp in Juru in Pulau Pinang Province, one of the most notorious detention centers in the country.
After one week, Malaysian immigration officers placed him in a truck with more than a dozen other Burmese migrants.
“We drove for three hours to the border town of Alor Setar,” Lwin Ko recalled. “The truck stopped at a roadside shop near a rubber plantation, where officers had a meeting with traffickers. Then we were moved to a traffickers’ truck where we were put with about 70 Burmese from the Juru detention camp.”
Lwin Ko received money from friends and paid RM 2,300 [$653] to return to his job in Kuala Lampur.
Recently, six victims of human trafficking in Malaysia told their stories to “The Irrawaddy“. Each told a similar tale, confirming that corrupt Malaysian immigration officers, organized trafficking gangs, and corrupt Thai officials, work in tandem to transfer hapless illegal migrants to human traffickers.
After leaving detention centers, luckless migrants eventually end up in buildings or homes along the Thai-Malaysia border owned by the gangs.
None knew the amount of money the traffickers paid the corrupt officers, but it’s estimated to be somewhere between RM 700 to 1,000 [$198- $286] for each person sold.
One of the victims, Win Tun, 26, who is from central Burma and who worked in Kuala Lumpur, said: “We were arrested by police and immigration officers, and they placed us in the hands of traffickers.”
The gangs told the trafficking victims they had to pay RM 1,900 to 2,300 [$539-$653] if they wanted to return to Kuala Lumpur or Burma. Most gang members, they said, were ethnic Mon from Burma. Gang leaders, however, were usually Thai or Malaysian, who appeared to be well connected to local Thai or Malaysian authorities. Some leaders were reportedly officers in either immigration or police services.
Sithu Aung, 30, who is from Rangoon and worked in Kuala Lumpur, recalled what happened when he arrived at the traffickers’ building.
“They let me call my friends in Kuala Lumpur to ask for money,” he said. “They asked me for RM 2,300 to take me from that border town back to Kuala Lumpur.”
Unlucky migrants who cannot afford to pay for their freedom are usually sold to owners of Thai fishing boats, where they work in slave-like conditions.
According to a Burmese man, a former member of a trafficking gang who is now in hiding in Kuala Lumpur, after Malaysian immigration officers sell victims to a trafficking gang, the gangs usually wait one or two weeks for money to arrive from a victim’s family or friends.
If no money comes by the third week, said the man, who goes by the name Wanna, the hostages are usually passed on to be sold into the fishing industry or into household service or prostitution.
“Taking an illegal migrant is like taking a hostage,” said Wanna. “If they have money, they cannot be freed until we are paid.
If they don’t have money, they will be sold somewhere else.”
Traffickers have no fear of authorities, he said, because immigration officials see illegal migrants as “second-class humans.”
Latheeffa Koya, a well-known Malaysian human rights lawyer, said the human trafficking business along the border is nothing more than a form of slave trade in the contemporary world. The problem is transnational, she said, and to be remedied, all nations in the region must cooperate with each other.
“The reasons behind the problems are corrupt law enforcement and xenophobia,” she said. “The Malaysian people and the media have to know about this ugly issue.”
Why are Burmese the main victims in the slave trade on the Malaysian-Thai border?
Aegile Fernandez, the coordinator of Tenaganita, a Malaysian human rights group, explained: “Burmese are highly valuable goods [for traffickers] because as refugees they are not accepted by their own country.”
Some victims who are sold to traffickers had even registered with the UNHCR, the UN refugee agency. But Malaysia has not signed the UN refugee convention, she said, so it goes unrecognized and is of no help.
“We are sad to see that Malaysia has high corruption,” Aegile Fernanadez said. “Officials are so greedy for money. They look at illegal migrants as a valuable resource.”
The situation facing Burmese migrants in Malaysia, who total an estimated 500,000 people, is quite different from migrants from other countries in the region who work in the country. Malaysian human rights groups say that if Malaysian authorities arrest undocumented migrants from Indonesia, the Philippines or Bangladesh, they are returned back to their country through government-to-government cooperation.
However, the Burmese military regime is unwilling to cooperate with any country which has detained illegal Burmese migrants. When faced with immigration problems, even legal migrant workers who are in Malaysia via agents cannot get routine help from the Burmese embassy in Kuala Lumpur.
Sometimes Burmese embassies in Thailand and Malaysia even publish notices in Burmese that read: “Come in person, but don’t come with a problem.”
Of course, human traffickers operate on a two-way street, and also smuggle people out of Burma through Thailand and into Malaysia. All undocumented Burmese migrants interviewed by “The Irrawaddy” said that they paid up to 100,000 kyat [about US $100] to trafficking agents in Rangoon or Kawthoung, in southern Burma, to be smuggled into Malaysia.
Traffickers in Kawthoung transport migrants to the Thai town of Ranong by boat, where they then depart by bus or vehicle to cross the Malaysian border.
“I was put in a box that they placed in the baggage area of a bus,” said Myint Lwin, who recalled his journey into Malaysia.
Traffickers clearly have the help of local police and immigration officials, said one migrant.
“I saw people in uniform help traffickers in smuggling people from Thailand to Malaysia,” he said. “How else can we come to Malaysia through so many checkpoints?”
How to combat the human trafficking issue in Malaysia and all of Southeast Asia is a major issue for Malaysian authorities as well as the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean). Human rights advocates and analysts say all Asean nations have a clear obligation under the new Asean charter.
Migrant issues in the region are recognized as an urgent problem that must be resolved, said Usana Berananda of the department of Asean Affairs in Thailand’s foreign ministry.
But recognizing a problem and taking concrete actions to solve it are not the same. Migrants and analysts are skeptical, pointing out that officials in many Asean countries still view migrants as an enemy, even though many significant industries and businesses in the region survive by employing a migrant workforce, often illegal.
“I do not see any good prospect for Burmese migrants and refugees unless governments in the region give up their bad policies on migrants,” Aegile Fernandez said. “We need the governments to take real action against corrupt immigration officers. However, it will be difficult because the immigration department is also the government itself.”
While activists and honest government officials struggle with the human trafficking problem in the region, average Burmese migrant workers in Malaysia simply hope they can avoid the corrupt officials and traffickers.
“I need to be aware of everything,” said Myint Lwin, who was sold to traffickers in late 2008. “Everything depends on karma. I am just praying to secure myself from arrest and human traffickers in the future.”
Stories such as Myint Lwin’s were outlined in a US State Department report this year, citing credible evidence of Malaysian immigration officials’ involvement in human trafficking. The report estimated that only 20 percent of the victims sold to traffickers by Malaysian officers are able to pay for their return.
The unlucky people who cannot pay are passed on into a pitiless world of exploitation.
In June, the Malaysian government denied the US allegations in the report, issuing a statement calling the allegations “baseless.”
“The government has already initiated a few internal investigations, but [the accusations are] baseless,” said Malaysian Home Ministry Secretary Gen Mahmood Adam.
Such words ring hollow to the Burmese victims now toiling on Thai fishing boats or in houses of prostitution.
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- Myanmar: IOM refugee resettlement tops 67,000
- Refugee policy is a human rights issue, not a law and order one
- Hostages and slaves: Human trafficking on the Malaysian-Thai border
- Registration For Illegal Burmese, Lao And Cambodian Migrant Workers, Open for July only…probably last chance to do it
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- Ban Ki Moon in Burma: The Chance for a New Beginning
- UN chief to return to Myanmar on same day opposition leader Suu Kyi’s trial resumes
- UN chief arrives in Myanmar to press junta
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