Myanmar to deport migrants rescued at sea to Bangladesh
Myanmar says it will deport to Bangladesh a group of over 200 migrants who were recently rescued at sea.
The Saturday announcement was made a day after Myanmar’s navy said it had saved the lives of 208 men on board a migrant boat.
According to the Myanmar authorities, all the men are from Bangladesh and will soon be sent back to the country.
“We are giving humanitarian assistance to them. After that we will deport them back to the relevant country,” Zaw Htay, the director of the Myanmar presidential office said on Saturday, adding that authorities have contacted “Bangladeshi border officials on the ground regarding the arrived persons.”
Bangladesh, in response, has said that a team from its border guard force would go to Myanmar shortly, with a law enforcement source saying that the country wants to make sure Myanmar does not send any member of the Rohingya Muslim community to Bangladesh.
“Our commander will go himself. The entire procedure might take up to two or three days to complete,” Major Abu Russell Siddiki, a spokesman at the Teknaf border post in Bangladesh, said.
According to reports, as many as 2,000 migrants, often referred to as 'boat people,’ are believed to be stranded in the Bay of Bengal, the South Asia region, with many of them at the mercy of human traffickers.
Most of the boat people are reportedly from the Rohingya Muslim community in Myanmar’s western state of Rakhine, where they are not recognized by the Myanmar government as citizens and referred to as “Bengalis” or illegal immigrants from Bangladesh, whose own citizens are seeking to flee widespread poverty in the country.
On May 22, the UN Refugee Agency said at least 3,000 members of the Rohingya Muslim minority are still likely stranded in the Andaman Sea.
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The Rohingya Muslims face extensive discrimination and restrictions in Myanmar. Many of the Muslims now live in displacement camps, three years after scores of them lost their lives amid a breakdown of violence between the community and local Buddhists. The turmoil forced more people to flee on boats.
The Rohingya have faced torture, neglect, and repression in Myanmar for many years.
MR/HSN/HMV
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