Dhaka: Rohingya and other survivors of dangerous boat voyages from Burma and Bangladesh describe horrific treatment by unscrupulous smugglers and traffickers in Burma, and abuse and neglect aboard ships, Human Rights Watch (HRW) said on 27 May.

‘A regional meeting scheduled on 29 May 2015, in Bangkok must find solutions to the so-called boat people exodus, said the statement.

The HRW claimed Rohingya explained to them how they endured two months at sea, packed below decks in cramped conditions with limited food and water and very poor sanitation.

‘Boats carrying approximately 100 mostly Rohingya men and women each abandoned passengers at an undisclosed location along Thailand’s coast, leaving them to fend for themselves until they were found by the Thai authorities. According to international agencies, 3,000 to 4,000 people may still be aboard ships at sea’.

‘Survivors describe how they flee persecution in Burma only to fall into the hands of traffickers and extortionists, in many cases witnessing deaths and suffering abuse and hunger,’ said Brad Adams, HRW Asia director.

‘Interviews with officials and others make clear that these brutal networks, with the complicity of government officials in Burma, Bangladesh, Thailand, and Malaysia, profit from the desperation and misery of some of the world’s most persecuted and neglected people.’

The HRW urged the regional states and other governments with the ability to make commitments to redouble search-and-rescue efforts and ensure that thousands of Rohingya and Bangladeshi asylum seekers and migrants have full access to procedures for seeking international protection and humanitarian assistance.

‘Burma (Myanmar) and Bangladesh need to stop persecuting Rohingya, while Thailand and Malaysia urgently need to shut down camps where boat people are held to end abuses and ensure that no more mass graves are created on their soil,’ Adams said.

In recent weeks scores of boats carrying thousands of Rohingya asylum seekers and migrants from Myanmar and Bangladesh have arrived in Thailand, Malaysia, and Indonesia. The three governments responded by pushing the boats back out to sea, leading to domestic and international condemnation and forcing them to reconsider these policies.

In response to pressure, the foreign ministers of the three countries met in Kuala Lumpur on 21 May. Malaysia and Indonesia agreed to permit boats to land, but only with the proviso that the international community provide humanitarian assistance and help resettle or repatriate all the passengers within one year.

‘Conditions for Rohingya in Burma [Myanmar] are extremely dire, with limited access to education, employment, and the freedom to travel or observe their own religion cited as reasons for flight. Some flee voluntarily to escape these abusive conditions, but Rohingya also told Human Rights Watch that in some cases, smugglers lured and duped people to make the sea journey without disclosing what was involved, and sometimes handed them over to traffickers’, said the statement.

One 13-year-old Rohingya girl described, claimed Human Rights Watch, how men grabbed her in front of her family: ‘They dragged me to the boat, they had sticks, and threatened to beat me. I screamed, I cried loudly. My parents were weeping, but they couldn’t do anything.’

Another 16-year-old Rohingya girl said quoted HRW: ‘There was a group of six men, they were Rakhine Buddhists from Bangladesh, they had knives and guns. They forced me to get on a boat, they told me I was leaving Myanmar. They pushed me to the small boat, I fell into the water up to my shoulders. Fifteen other Rohingya were on that boat. All the people were forced onto the boat.’

A third Rohingya girl told of being grabbed by traffickers along with her husband and child: ‘I was on the way to my father-in-law’s house with my husband when a broker and many men took us. They forced us onto the big boat. On the boat I couldn’t understand their [the traffickers’] language, I cannot speak Burmese or Rakhine, I don’t know who they are’, reported HRW.

‘In all instances, the conditions on the boats were terrible’.

One Rohingya girl said, claimed Human Rights Watch: ‘We spent two months on that boat, more people kept coming to the big boat, small boats all the time. We [the women] were under the boat, it was so small. I couldn’t see outside the boat, just feel it go up and down. People were throwing up, I felt dizzy and uncomfortable the whole time.’

Another Rohingya girl said, quoted HRW: ‘When I got to the big boat … I cannot explain my feeling I was so scared. We were about 16 people in one small room. The doors were always locked. The smugglers put the food and water through a small hole, we never saw them.’

The abuses continued on land, HRW added.

On 25 May, Malaysian government authorities announced they had discovered as many as 139 similar graves in a series of 28 camps on the Malaysian side of the border. This followed the discovery of mass graves in Thailand in May. Thailand and Malaysia need to act immediately to close any remaining camps of victims and offer aid and protection to any survivors found.

‘Rohingya and Bangladeshis described how they have been held in camps in Thailand and Malaysia until they could pay a ransom. They were beaten and abused if they could not pay’.

One Rohingya woman who was held in such a camp on the Thai side of the border told Human Rights Watch, as they claimed, that she was severely abused to force her relatives to pay up: ‘The brokers beat me with sticks and bamboo and put out cigarettes on my legs and ankles because I could not raise the money.’

The current crisis was in part sparked after the discovery of mass graves of people suspected to be Rohingya and Bangladeshi. ‘Pretending that the government did not know that Rohingya and others were regularly trafficked and smuggled to camps in Thailand on their way to Malaysia, the Thai authorities began a crackdown on transit camps on 1 May’.

The poor treatment of the Rohingya, said HRW, has been accompanied by callous remarks by regional leaders. Burma’s political leaders deny the existence of Rohingya, denouncing them as ‘illegal Bengalis.’

‘Burmese officials initially denied any of the people in the boats came from Burma. Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina of Bangladesh said the migrant workers from her country were ‘mentally sick’ and vowed to punish anyone leaving the country illegally’.

Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbot  called the boat people ‘reckless’ and when asked if Australia would consider resettling any Rohingya found to be refugees, replied, ‘Nope, nope, nope’, added the statement.

Ahead of the regional meeting on ‘Irregular Migration in the Indian Ocean’ convened by the Thai government on 29 May in Bangkok, the leaders of Myanmar, Bangladesh, Thailand, Malaysia, and Indonesia ‘should show greater recognition of and respect for the rights of the Rohingyas and Bangladeshis on these boats. The United Nations refugee agency, UNHCR, and other international agencies should be permitted access to survivors of boat voyages to assess their claims for protection in accordance with international standards and to help identify people who are fleeing persecution, those who were trafficked, and those who are migrating for economic reasons’.

‘Burma [Myanmar] and Bangladesh should hold to account anyone found to be abusing Rohingya and others by coercing them or deliberately deceiving them to embark onto boats, where they are held in atrocious conditions’.

‘Thailand, Malaysia, and Indonesia need to agree to never again engage in pushbacks of people stuck at sea, find any remaining boats, bring the people on board to safe ports, and ensure that their rights are respected,’ Adams said. ‘Just as important, there will be no long-term solution unless Burma ends its rights-abusing and discriminatory policies toward the Rohingya and joins other countries in taking action against smugglers and traffickers who abuse and prey on them.’

Long-term ill-treatment of Rohingya in Myanmar

‘The dramatic surge in boat people leaving western Burma [Myanmar] and Bangladesh has its roots in decades of repression and denial of rights to the stateless Rohingya Muslim minority’, said HRW.

‘In 1978, the Burmese army staged a military operation that drove over 250,000 Rohingya into neighbouring Bangladesh, who forcibly returned many of them soon afterward’.

‘The Rohingya have been denied full citizenship rights because the discriminatory 1982 Citizenship Law made it almost impossible for Rohingya to prove their claims to citizenship. In 1991, Burmese security forces again violently expelled hundreds of thousands of Rohingya into Bangladesh. In 1995, Bangladesh forcibly returned many Rohingya to Burma [Myanmar], where they have lived predominantly in Buthidaung and Maungdaw townships along the border, under restrictive conditions that severely curtail their freedom of movement, ability to seek work, and access to basic social services, and curbs on the right to religion. The Burma government has refused to accept the term ‘Rohingya’ and refers to them as ‘illegal Bengalis’.’

‘In Bangladesh, there are approximately 30,000 recognised Rohingya refugees in UNHCR-run camps who arrived in Bangladesh before 1993. Since that time, Rohingya have not had any opportunity to lodge claims in Bangladesh for refugee status regardless of their need for international protection. Consequently, another estimated 30,000 who are not recognized refugees live in makeshift sites around these camps near Teknaf in Cox’s Bazaar, and another 250,000 to 300,000 undocumented Rohingya live around the area. Those outside the UNHCR-run camp often face abuse and discrimination from local Bangladesh officials and communities.’

‘Starting in 2005, small boats carrying Rohingya and Bangledeshi migrant workers started leaving the coast of southern Bangladesh, carrying mostly men to Malaysia to join the migrant worker population there. These small vessels often came ashore in Thailand, and utilized a network of smuggling routes from Thailand into Malaysia. The number of boats arriving gradually grew, prompting the Thai authorities to take action. In 2009, several ships were towed long distances out to sea by Thai security officials, sparking a major international outcry marked by critical media coverage. Thailand then changed to a so-called help on policy, where officials were ordered to re-provision boats that arrived in Thai territorial waters with humanitarian supplies, refuse them the right to land in Thailand, and direct them south to Malaysia.’

‘However, this policy later mutated into a policy of corruption and directing arriving boats into the hands of gangs, who then placed the people aboard in jungle camps where they were held and extorted for money before being permitted to travel to Malaysia. The exodus has grown to tens of thousands of Rohingya and Bangladeshis, some who are fleeing violence and discrimination, and others who are seeking work. A recent report by the office of the UN high commissioner for refugees estimated that 25,000 people travelled on boats from Burma and Bangladesh in the first three months of 2015, with an estimated 300 dying of starvation, dehydration, or beatings by smuggling crews, or as a result of fights on board ships.’

‘Sectarian violence between ethnic Arakanese Buddhists and Rohingya and other Muslims erupted first in June 2012. A second round of violence in October 2012 resulted in government-backed crimes against humanity amounting to a campaign of ethnic cleansing aimed to drive the Rohingya from urban areas of Arakan State. Overall, there were at least 167 deaths and widespread property destruction. There remain over 140,000 internally displaced Rohingya and Arakanese in camps throughout Arakan State. Many Rohingya have been receiving only rudimentary and inadequate assistance due to government restrictions and intimidation by Arakanese ultra-nationalists against international aid workers.’

‘The March-April 2014 census conducted by the Burmese government with assistance from the UN Population Fund did not enumerate people who self-identified as Rohingya. Preliminary results released in August estimated that 1.09 million people were not counted. In response to the prolonged displacement, the government formulated a draft Rakhine Action Plan, which was disclosed by the media in September. The plan contained discriminatory provisions that could, if enacted, ensure long-term segregation of displaced Rohingya and enshrine statelessness as a national policy. Months after a promised release, the Rakhine Action Plan has yet formally to be made publicly available, which adds to concerns in affected communities.’

‘In 2015, the Burmese government stripped the Rohingya of the right to hold temporary identification cards, so-called white cards that gave them the right to vote in the 2008 constitutional referendum and the 2010 nationwide elections, but did not guarantee the full rights of a citizen. Over 400,000 Rohingya have relinquished the cards ahead of the May 31 deadline, with the Burmese government promising some form of ID to be issued in the future if Rohingya self-identify as ‘Bengali,’ not as Rohingya. Also deeply troubling is the passage of four so-called race and religion laws, which many see as targeting the Muslim minority in Burma [Myanmar] generally, and the Rohingya in particular, including the recently passed Population Control Healthcare law, which could be used to limit Rohingya birth rates. It is these developments, and the escalated violence against Rohingya since 2012, that has largely fuelled the current exodus.’