Southeast Asian MPs call on ASEAN member states and other countries in the region to rescue boat with up to 200 Rohingya refugees

Southeast Asian MPs call on ASEAN member states and other countries in the region to rescue boat with up to 200 Rohingya refugees

JAKARTA – Parliamentarians from Southeast Asia urge ASEAN member states and other countries in the region to urgently rescue a boat carrying up to 200 Rohingya refugees, including women and children, which has been reportedly adrift off the coasts of Thailand, Malaysia, Indonesia and India for weeks.

According to the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), the boat has been adrift in high seas since late November, and dozens of passengers have already died on the journey, while the surviving passengers have no access to food, water or medication. 

We urgently call on ASEAN member states and other countries in the region to fulfill their humanitarian obligations and launch search and rescue operations for the boat if it enters their waters, and to allow for the proper disembarkation of the refugees. It is disgraceful that a boat filled with men, women, and children in grave danger has been allowed to remain adrift. Neglecting the people on the boat is nothing short of an affront to humanity,” said Eva Sundari, Board Member of ASEAN Parliamentarians for Human Rights (APHR), and former Member of the Indonesian House of Representatives.

According to media reports and information from human rights organizations, two other boats carrying Rohingya refugees have been adrift ASEAN waters in the past weeks. One, carrying 154 refugees, was rescued by a Vietnamese oil service vessel on 8 December and handed over to the Myanmar navy. Another, carrying 104 refugees, was rescued by the Sri Lanka navy on 18 December, and disembarked at Kankesanturai Harbor.

The Rohingya have been suffering persecution in their country of origin, Myanmar, for decades. The overwhelming majority of them were rendered stateless in the early nineties by the authorities, and have suffered the most serious human rights violations since at least the late seventies. In 2016 and 2017 they were the target of brutal military operations, displacing over 730,000 to neighbouring Bangladesh and for which the Myanmar army has been accused of genocide.

In these desperate conditions, many of them put themselves at the hands of unscrupulous human smugglers to seek a better life in countries like Malaysia, in extremely dangerous journeys through the Andaman Sea.

In all likelihood, the delay in rescuing these boats has already caused untold suffering and loss of life. Any further delay is unconscionable. This neglect of Rohingya refugees stranded in the sea is nothing new, as it has been going on for years, and has resulted in hundreds, if not thousands, of deaths that could have been easily been prevented if the countries in the region fulfilled the most elementary humanitarian principles,” said Charles Santiago, Chairperson of APHR, and former member of Parliament from Malaysia.

APHR urges ASEAN to devise a comprehensive and coordinated regional response to the issue of refugees stranded at sea, in order to act effectively, and according to humanitarian principles, in such situations, as saving lives at sea must be a collective effort.

But ASEAN should also address the root causes of the tragedy that has befell the Rohingya for so many years, including putting pressure on the Myanmar authorities to restore their citizenship, and receiving the refugees currently living in precarious camps in Bangladesh. ASEAN should also help to hold the perpetrators of atrocities against the Rohingya people accountable, especially now that the army that launched the genocidal military operations against them in 2016 and 2017 has thrown Myanmar into chaos since staging an illegal coup d’état on 1 February 2021.

ASEAN and the international community at large have stood idly for too long as the Rohingya tragedy unfolded over the years. Those countries who claim to defend human rights have a moral obligation to address the root causes of the human rights crisis afflicting the Rohingya, or these humanitarian tragedies will only repeat again and again. ASEAN member states, as well as their partners in the region and beyond, must ensure that Myanmar restore the rights of the Rohingya people, end all discriminatory practices and holds those responsible for crimes against humanity to account,” said Kasit Piromya, APHR Board Member and former Thai Minister of Foreign Affairs.

Five years since genocide, the world must act to ensure justice for Rohingya

Five years since genocide, the world must act to ensure justice for Rohingya

In marking the five-year commemoration of the genocide committed against the Rohingya in 2017, 384 civil society organizations reaffirm our commitment to continue to stand in solidarity with and seek justice for the Rohingya, to ensure the full restoration of their rights in Myanmar, and to end the impunity of the Myanmar military. The plight of the Rohingya must not be forgotten.

On this day five years ago, the Myanmar military launched a terror campaign in Rakhine State against the Rohingya and massacred, tortured, raped, and burned villages. They forced three quarters of a million people to flee to Bangladesh where they remain today alongside a quarter of a million Rohingya who fled earlier persecutions in Myanmar. Around one million Rohingya are struggling to survive in crowded refugee camps in Bangladesh, waiting to return to their home and their country in dignity with their full rights restored.

The return of Rohingya to Myanmar is substantially predicated on ending the impunity of the Myanmar military and accountability for the grave atrocity crimes the military has committed, including by prosecuting individuals who are most responsible. Yet, progress towards justice and accountability has remained minimal, made even more elusive by the military’s attempted coup on February 1, 2021.

As the military commits war crimes and crimes against humanity throughout the country, perpetrating similar crimes committed against the Rohingya in 2017 during its ‘clearance operations’, on 10 August 2022, the junta’s spokesperson for Rakhine State, U Hla Thein, told Radio Free Asia the junta is making plans to repatriate Rohingya refugees to Rakhine State – at the rate of 150 people per day starting in September 2022. This is a part of its ongoing desperate attempt to gain legitimacy from the international community. As recently expressed by the High Commissioner for Human Rights during her visit to Cox’s Bazar in Bangladesh, “conditions are not right for returns” and “Repatriation must always be conducted in a voluntary and dignified manner, only when safe and sustainable conditions exist in Myanmar.”

Rohingya in Myanmar continue to live under genocidal policies in apartheid-like conditions, systematically denied citizenship, with severe restrictions on fundamental freedoms including freedom of movement, access to health, education and other essential services. They are arbitrarily arrested, detained and treated as criminals for traveling outside of confined areas and further dehumanized for attempting to flee appalling conditions within Rakhine State. The over 130,000 Rohingya that remain in open air prison camps in Rakhine State face new restrictions on movement and aid blockages since the attempted coup. In effect, the genocidal acts of deliberately inflicting conditions of life that are calculated to bring about the Rohingya’s physical destruction, in whole or in part, are continuing to be perpetrated by the military junta, leading to their “slow death”.

Emboldened by the lack of international, concerted action to hold the military accountable, the world is bearing witness to the military’s atrocity crimes, amounting to war crimes and crimes against humanity, that are now being perpetrated against the wider population in Myanmar as people bravely resist the junta’s ongoing violent attempt to seize power which has failed after 18 months. These crimes are all too familiar to the ethnic communities who have endured decades of atrocities by the Myanmar military.

Five years on, words have not turned into robust action as more statements of “grave concern” pile on to the condemnation of military’s atrocity crimes. Actions must speak louder.

We welcome the ruling by the International Court of Justice (ICJ) on the preliminary objections lodged by the military junta in the case of Rohingya genocide brought forward by The Gambia, which has paved the way for the court to adjudicate the merits of The Gambia’s case. With this ruling, governments must send a strong message to the Myanmar military that they will be held accountable for their crimes by supporting The Gambia’s case – including lending legal, financial and technical support. In addition, the UN Security Council, and the UK as the “penholder” on Myanmar, must convene a meeting on the progress of the implementation of the provisional measures.

Efforts to hold the Myanmar military criminally accountable must be expedited. This includes supporting universal jurisdiction cases to prosecute the military, in particular the universal jurisdiction case in Argentina. It is vital that the international community continue to explore other avenues for full justice and accountability, including a UN Security Council referral of the situation in Myanmar to the International Criminal Court or to set up an ad-hoc tribunal.

We welcome the US government’s determination earlier this year that crimes committed against Rohingya amount to genocide. Five months have passed since this decisive step. The US must bolster accountability efforts by joining The Gambia case at the ICJ and impose further sanctions including sanctioning the Myanma Oil and Gas Enterprise (MOGE) – one of the junta’s main sources of foreign currency revenue.

The Myanmar military continues to enrich themselves through their businesses and are enabled by the web of arms brokers that supply them with weapons and equipment to carry out their atrocity crimes. There must be further efforts to impose targeted sanctions against their businesses, partners and cronies. Governments must impose arms embargo against the military, including on jet fuel to the military, while working towards a coordinated global arms embargo.

The ongoing crimes against the Rohingya underscore the importance of the National Unity Government (NUG), as the legitimate government of Myanmar, to translate the policy of the NUG into a concrete set of actions and implement the provisional measures ordered by the ICJ. These can include by fully and meaningfully engaging with the Rohingya to restore their equal rights, recognizing the Rohingya as an ethnic and indigenous group to Myanmar, and ensuring their representation in the ongoing political processes, including in the highest echelons of the NUG governing structures. The NUG, the National Unity Consultative Council (NUCC) and the Committee Representing Pyidaungsu Hluttaw (CRPH) must immediately amend the discriminatory 1982 Citizenship Law by removing all discriminatory articles and clauses as pledged in its policy paper, and repeal the racist and xenophobic four “Race and Religion Protection Laws” and the National Verification Process that has long been used as a tool for genocide. The people of Spring Revolution have shown their solidarity and empathy with the Rohingya community since its start. It is time that the NUG translate its policy and people’s solidarity into actions.

For more information, please contact:

Signed by 384 organizations, including 265 groups who have chosen not to disclose their names:

  1. 8888 Generation (New Zealand)
  2. Action Committee for Democracy Development
  3. Ah Nah Podcast – Conversation with Myanmar
  4. All Burma Democratic Face in New Zealand
  5. ALTSEAN-Burma
  6. Ananda Data
  7. ASEAN Parliamentarians for Human Rights (APHR)
  8. Asia Pacific Solidarity Coalition (APSOC)
  9. Asian Dignity Initiative
  10. Asian Forum for Human Rights and Development (FORUM-ASIA)
  11. Association of Human Rights Defenders and Promoters
  12. Association Suisse-Birmanie (ASB)
  13. Athan – Freedom of Expression Activist Organization
  14. Auckland Kachin Community NZ
  15. Auckland Zomi Community
  16. Ayeyarwaddy Youth Network
  17. Bandugavlar Civil Call – BCC (Sagaing Region)
  18. Blooming Padauk
  19. Burma Action Ireland
  20. Burma Campaign UK
  21. Burma Civil War Museum (BCM)
  22. Burma Human Rights Network
  23. Burma Task Force
  24. Burman suomalaiset Finland
  25. Burmese Community Group (Manawatu, NZ)
  26. Burmese Muslim Association (BMA)
  27. Burmese Rohingya Organisation UK
  28. Burmese Rohingya Welfare Organisation New Zealand
  29. Campaign for a New Myanmar
  30. Chin Community of Auckland
  31. Chin Human Rights Organization
  32. Chin Leaders of Tomorrow
  33. Chin MATA Working Group
  34. Chin Resources Center
  35. Christian Solidarity Worldwide
  36. CIVICUS: World Alliance for Citizen Participation
  37. CRPH & NUG Supporters Ireland
  38. CRPH Funding Ireland
  39. CRPH Support Group, Norway
  40. Democracy for Ethnic Minorities Organization
  41. Democracy for Myanmar – Working Group (NZ)
  42. Democracy, Peace And Women’s Organization
  43. Digital Right Collective
  44. Equality Myanmar
  45. European Karen Network (EKN)
  46. Federal Myanmar Benevolence Group (NZ)
  47. Freedom for Burma
  48. Future Thanlwin
  49. General Strike Committee of Nationalities (GSCN)
  50. Global Movement for Myanmar Democracy (GM4MD)
  51. Grass-root People
  52. Human Rights Educator Network
  53. Human Rights Foundation of Monland
  54. India For Myanmar
  55. Info Birmanie
  56. Initiatives for International Dialogue
  57. Institute for Asian Democracy
  58. International Campaign for the Rohingya
  59. Justice for All
  60. Justice For Myanmar
  61. Karen Human Rights Group
  62. Karen Swedish Community
  63. Karen Women’s Organization
  64. Karenni National Women’s Organization
  65. Karenni Society Finland
  66. Karenni Society New Zealand
  67. Keng Tung Youth
  68. Kyauktada Strike Committee (KSC)
  69. MATA (Sagaing Region)
  70. Metta Campaign Mandalay
  71. Myanmar Accountability Project
  72. Myanmar Action Group Denmark (MAGD)
  73. Myanmar Alliance for Transparency and Accountability – MATA
  74. Myanmar Cultural Research Society (MCRS)
  75. Myanmar Diaspora Group Finland
  76. Myanmar Engineers – New Zealand
  77. Myanmar Gonye (New Zealand)
  78. Myanmar People Alliance (Shan State)
  79. Myanmar Students’ Union in New Zealand
  80. Never Again Coalition
  81. Netherlands – Myanmar Solidarity Platform
  82. ​​Network for Advocacy Action
  83. New Rehmonnya Federated Force (NRFF)
  84. New Zealand Doctors for NUG
  85. New Zealand Karen Association
  86. New Zealand Zo Community Inc.
  87. No Business With Genocide
  88. Nyan Lynn Thit Analytica
  89. Overseas Mon Association, New Zealand
  90. Pa-O Women’s Union
  91. Progressive Voice
  92. Pyithu Gonye (New Zealand)
  93. Rvwang Community Association New Zealand
  94. Rohingya Action Ireland
  95. SaNaR (Save the Natural Resource)
  96. Save and Care Organization for Ethnic Women at Border Areas
  97. Save Myanmar Fundraising Group (New Zealand)
  98. Shan Community (New Zealand)
  99. Shan MATA
  100. Sisters 2 Sisters
  101. SOS MYANMAR (ရုန်းကန်သံအဖွဲ့)
  102. Southern Dragon (Myanmar)
  103. Southern Youth Development Organization
  104. Students for Free Burma (SFB)
  105. Swedish Burma Committee
  106. Synergy-Social Harmony Organization
  107. Ta’ang Women’s Organization
  108. Ta’ang Legal Aid
  109. Tanintharyi MATA
  110. The Free Burma Campaign (South Africa)
  111. The Sentry
  112. Thint Myat Lo Thu Myar Organization
  113. Unitarian Universalist Service Committee (UUSC)
  114. S. Advocacy Coalition for Myanmar (USACM)
  115. S. Campaign for Burma
  116. Women Advocacy Coalition Myanmar
  117. Women’s League of Burma
  118. Women’s Peace Network
  119. အထက်အညာလွင်ပြင်ရပ်ဝန်

Read this statement in Burmese here.

Joint Statement on Immigration Detention Policies & Practices in Malaysia

Joint Statement on Immigration Detention Policies & Practices in Malaysia

In the early hours of 20th April, over 500 Rohingya refugees, including 97 women, 294 men, and 137 children, escaped from a detention centre in Sungai Bakap. It was later confirmed that 7 of those who fled were killed tragically in a traffic accident, including three young children. Over the following days, at least 467 people were re-detained, and there is a continuing effort by government authorities to find and arrest the remaining refugees who fled. As members of the international human rights community, we the undersigned are deeply concerned by this heartbreaking loss of life, and we urge the Malaysian government to conduct an immediate, thorough, and independent inquiry into the underlying circumstances and detention conditions which led to such severe levels of human desperation, and prompted an escape attempt by so many.

It is reported that a large number of Rohingya refugees are held indefinitely in immigration detention centres in Malaysia, without possibility of release. This has been compounded by the Malaysian government refusing UNHCR access to detention centres in order to conduct refugee status determination processes since August 2019. Home Minister Hamzah Zainudin has stated that refugees held at the Sungai Bakap detention centre have been detained for over two years and cannot be deported.

The deprivation of liberty of people and families seeking safety and asylum is a serious concern to us, and is a fundamental violation of human rights. The impact of detention on mental, physical, and emotional health has been extensively researched and consistently shows that people, especially those who have previously experienced traumatic events, face high levels of mental health challenges as a result of being detained. Further, ample evidence proves that the severity of anxiety, depression, and post-traumatic stress that a person experiences is closely linked to the length of time they have spent in immigration detention. 

As of 26 April 2022, the Malaysian Immigration Director-General Datuk Seri Khairul Dzaimee Daud reported that there were 17, 634 migrants in immigration detention centres nationwide, including 1, 528  children. The Home Ministry has also further reported 208 recorded deaths in immigration detention between 2018 and February 15th 2022, citing Covid-19, septic shock, tuberculosis, severe pneumonia, organ failure, lung infection, heart complications, dengue, diabetes, and breathing difficulties, among others. 

We strongly urge the Government of Malaysia to

  • Carry out a comprehensive review of the current policies and practices of immigration detention centres in Malaysia to ensure they are in line with international legal standards
  • Ensure full transparency of the investigation and review, and make the process and results available and accessible to the public
  • Proceed with immediate implementation of the ATD pilot officially launched in February 2022, and ensure Rohingya children are included within the scope of the pilot
  • Simultaneously, take immediate steps to enact legal and policy changes to ensure that children are no longer detained for migration-related reasons, given that only 5 children are to be released at any time under the ATD Pilot
  • Follow through on the pledges made to uphold human rights, in order to secure their seat on the United Nations Human Rights Council, for example, “to implement policies and legislations that promote and protect the rights of the most vulnerable communities,” which indisputably include refugees, people seeking asylum and stateless persons, especially women and children
  • ​​Immediately release all persons registered with UNHCR from immigration detention and grant UNHCR access to all immigration detention centres to continue registration of persons of concern
  • Grant access to Doctors Without Borders Malaysia, and other NGOs to immigration detention centres to ensure detainees have access to medical treatment and support services

Malaysia continually lags behind its closest neighbours in ASEAN, specifically Thailand and Indonesia, who have released hundreds of children from immigration detention into community-based care since 2018. Further, in Indonesia, the local government in Aceh has set up a task force to manage emergency response. These processes link refugee communities to support from  IOM, UNHCR, Geutanyoe Foundation, JRS Indonesia, and other organisations, until the national government advises which cities they will be transferred to for sustainable and ongoing accommodation and support. 

We call upon the Government of Malaysia to respond to this human tragedy with compassionate leadership and integrity, and commit to protecting the rights of refugees and people seeking asylum in Malaysia, as committed to in the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC), the UN Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW), and the ASEAN Declaration on the Rights of Children in the Context of Migration. The Government of Malaysia must reconsider its current policies and systems of immigration detention, which are arbitrary, harmful, costly and ineffective. Instead, they should develop and implement non-custodial alternatives to detention, particularly for people in vulnerable situations, such as children, ethnic and religious minorities, women, gender-diverse and LGBTI+ people.

It is time for Malaysia to step up to its international commitments, and we stand prepared to support the Government and other civil society organisations in developing systems and frameworks for alternatives to detention, and ensuring that nothing like this ever happens again.

Signed,

International Detention Coalition

Asia Pacific Refugee Rights Network

ASEAN Parliamentarian on Human Rights 

Asian Forum for Human Rights and Development (Forum-Asia)

As Foreign Ministers meet, ASEAN urged to step up its Rakhine response

As Foreign Ministers meet, ASEAN urged to step up its Rakhine response

JAKARTA – Ahead of ASEAN’s Foreign Ministers’ Retreat today, Southeast Asian parliamentarians urged the ministers to step up the bloc’s actions on the deteriorating situation in Myanmar’s Rakhine State. Today’s meeting will set the priority items for ASEAN’s discussions this year. 

“Despite the deterioration of the situation in Rakhine over the past few years, ASEAN keeps responding time and again with the same rhetoric and approach. Now it is pushing the return of the Rohingya refugees to a place that is completely unsafe. It’s time to take stock of what little progress ASEAN has achieved so far in resolving this crisis, and of Myanmar’s clear disregard for its calls,” said Charles Santiago, Member of Parliament in Malaysia and ASEAN Parliamentarians for Human Rights (APHR) Chair. 

Nearly four years since the Myanmar military committed atrocities in Rakhine State, the 600,000 Rohingya living there are still denied citizenship rights, freedom of movement, and basic rights. Rakhine State has also been the scene of intense fighting and a growing  number of deaths and injuries amid intensifying fighting between the military and Arakan Army over the past year, although a fragile informal ceasefire has held since November. 

Meanwhile, ASEAN continues to support discussions and initiatives on the repatriation of Rohingya refugees to Myanmar without consideration for  their safety or addressing the severe restrictions they face in Rakhine. So far, it has acknowledged the humanitarian needs, but refused to recognize the situation as a protracted human rights crisis.

If ASEAN does not start addressing the serious human rights concerns in Rakhine, its interventions will do more harm than good,” Santiago added. 

Lawmakers in the region warn that human trafficking, insecurity, and the movement of persons seeking safety in neighboring countries will increase if ASEAN does not shift its policy to a holistic, human rights-based approach. 

They urged the ministers to allow the ASEAN Intergovernmental Commission on Human Rights (AICHR) to be mandated to address the human rights concerns in Rakhine, and recommend that any further plans by ASEAN, especially the Comprehensive Needs Assessment on the repatriation of refugees, are developed with the meaningful consultation and participation of the Rohingya community and its representatives.

“It is high time that ASEAN takes a more effective approach to truly creating positive and sustainable change in Rakhine and the region as a whole. This can only be achieved if ASEAN shifts its approach, strengthens its language, assesses all aspects of the crisis, and is inclusive of the Rohingya in its decisions,” said Mercy Barends, Indonesian parliamentarian and APHR Board Member. 

Joint Letter to Bangladesh: Facilitate a Visit for Human Rights Groups to Bhasan Char

Joint Letter to Bangladesh: Facilitate a Visit for Human Rights Groups to Bhasan Char

Click here for a PDF version of this letter. This joint letter was publicly released on 12 November, 2020.

Honorable Foreign Secretary

Mr. Masud Bin Momen

September 21, 2020

Re: Request for the Cooperation of the Government of Bangladesh to Facilitate a Visit for Human Rights Groups to Bhasan Char Island

Dear Foreign Secretary Masud Bin Momen,

We, the undersigned five human rights organizations, would like acknowledge the Government of Bangladesh’s efforts to provide humanitarian assistance and emergency shelter to more than one million Rohingya refugees who fled brutal attacks by Myanmar authorities in 2016 and 2017 as well as Bangladesh’s role in providing shelter and support to hundreds of thousands of Rohingya who previously fled persecution in Myanmar.

We note that more than 300 Rohingya refugees are currently being housed on Bhasan Char island and that the Government of Bangladesh is moving forward with plans to relocate up to 100,000 Rohingya from Cox’s Bazar District to Bhasan Char after the monsoon season.

We recognize the efforts made by the Government of Bangladesh to respond to concerns raised by the United Nations, humanitarian aid agencies, human rights groups, and Rohingya refugees in regards to the facilities and conditions for refugees on the island and whether they meet international humanitarian and human rights standards.

We request the Government of Bangladesh to provide timely access to Bhasan Char, including unfettered access to meet with refugees, for a United Nations protection team, as well as for a United Nations-led technical team to review the sustainability and environmental conditions on the island.

We understand on September 5, a group of 40 Rohingya refugee representatives including Majhis visited the island on a “go and see” visit from refugee camps in mainland Cox’s Bazar District to see the facilitates and the situation on the island.

In this context we also note your comments during an August 24 webinar stating the Bangladesh government “may also arrange the visit of human rights groups and select media to appreciate the facilities created.”

We therefore request your government to facilitate and provide us, the undersigned international human rights organizations, with access to Bhasan Char island to conduct a joint assessment of the facilities and conditions for those on the island, at your earliest convenience.

We request the joint visit allow free and unfettered access to the island and ability to speak to Rohingya refugees privately. Our organizations hope to provide the Government of Bangladesh with both public and private recommendations.

We thank you for your attention to these matters, and we welcome the opportunity to assist and support your administration to ensure the protection of Rohingya refugees.

Sincerely,

David Griffiths, Director of the Office of the Secretary General, Amnesty International

Eric Schwartz, President, Refugees International, Former Assistant Secretary of State for Population, Refugees, and Migration

Kerry Kennedy, President, Robert F. Kennedy Human Rights

Matthew Smith, Chief Executive Officer, Fortify Rights

Teddy Baguilat, Executive Director, ASEAN Parliamentarians for Human Rights, Former Member of Parliament of the Philippines