December 19, 2023
The typical image of a refugee is a poor person with their hands out asking for aid. The Burmese refugees in Mae Sot on the Thai-Myanmar border defy that stereotype. Many are middle-class, educated urbanites with skills and plenty of initiative.
After standing up to the Burmese military and suffering for it, they left everything and fled for their lives to Mae Sot where they continued their struggle. Despite intimidation, exploitation by some Thai authorities, and living in fear without documentation, they have achieved a lot in under two years. Their purpose is to support their community and the revolution in a variety of ways through their resilience, commitment, ability and innovation.
Some refugees have set up businesses such as cafes, restaurants, bars, shops, hairdressers, a farm and cross-border trade. While they are for-profit, they also provide employment for other refugees and donate to the most vulnerable.
One café owner said, “If I am lucky, I break even but the café gives refugees employment, keeps them occupied and is a place where Burmese can meet and relax.”
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Paul Greening is an ex-UN senior staff officer with over 20 years of experience in six Asian countries working for six UN agencies and four INGOs. He worked in Sittwe, Rakhine State for the International Organization for Migration (IOM) from 2017 to 2020 and has been living in Mae Sot for two years.
First published by Myanmar news outlet Irrawady
https://www.ipsnews.net/2023/12/myanmar-refugees-build-schools-cafes-hope-mae-sot/
November 9, 2020
The United Kingdom wants the new government in Myanmar to take steps towards safe, voluntary and dignified return of the Rohingyas to their place of origin in Rakhine State.
https://www.ipsnews.net/2020/11/new-myanmar-govt-must-ensure-rohingya-repatriation-uk/
August 26, 2020
When Bangladesh continues to bear the brunt of sheltering more than a million Rohingyas, Myanmar is doing little for their repatriation amid the silence of global powers though the Southeast Asian country faces a genocide case, experts and officials said.
https://www.ipsnews.net/2020/08/rohingya-repatriation-myanmar-little-bangladesh-facing-challenges/
July 28, 2019
The Rohingyas should be treated as Myanmar nationals or be given a chance to form their own state, said Malaysian Prime Minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad.
https://www.ipsnews.net/2019/07/rohingyas-given-citizenship-state-dr-mahathir-tells-myanmar/
June 27, 2019
Myanmar must grant citizenship to
stateless Rohingya with roots in the country, a senior UN investigator said yesterday, as she urged the country's leader Aung San Suu Kyi to "be the democrat she once told us she was".
https://www.ipsnews.net/2019/06/myanmar-must-give-rohingya-pathway-citizenship-un-investigator/
June 18, 2019
Tens of thousands of older women and men from ethnic minorities across Myanmar who faced military atrocities and were forced to flee their homes are being let down by a humanitarian system that often fails to adequately address their rights and needs, Amnesty International said in a report published today.
https://www.ipsnews.net/2019/06/myanmarbangladesh-older-people-denied-dignity-camps-facing-military-atrocities/
May 24, 2019
Since the massive exodus of Rohingyas from Rakhine to Bangladesh in 2017, a lot has been written and said about the plight of these unfortunate people. After nearly two years, it appears that the outraged world community has forgotten about this persecuted ethnic minority.
https://www.ipsnews.net/2019/05/will-rohingyas-ever-return-myanmar/
January 20, 2019
UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres on Friday criticized as "too slow" Myanmar's efforts to allow the return of Rohingya Muslim refugees, describing the lack of progress as a source of "enormous frustration."
https://www.ipsnews.net/2019/01/frustrated-un-chief-criticises-myanmar/
January 4, 2019
In November 2018, a team of GGGI social development, and green investment specialists have been talking to representatives from national and regional government, NGOs, cookstove manufacturers and households from rural communities on how to increase the distribution and usage of fuel efficient cookstoves.
https://www.ipsnews.net/2019/01/using-blockchain-technology-distribute-fuel-efficient-cookstoves-myanmar/
December 5, 2018
The November 15 attempt to repatriate Rohingyas to Myanmar has failed. And that was destined too, despite wholehearted efforts from Bangladesh. Although Myanmar officials were quick to blame their Bangladesh counterparts for the “failure”, the ground reality provided a different picture.
https://www.ipsnews.net/2018/12/ball-now-myanmars-court/
September 13, 2018
Responding to comments by Myanmar's State Counsellor, Aung San Suu Kyi, at the World Economic Forum in Hanoi today defending the conviction of Reuters journalists Wa Lone, and Kyaw Soe Oo, Minar Pimple, Amnesty International’s Senior Director of Global Operations, said:
https://www.ipsnews.net/2018/09/myanmar-aung-san-suu-kyi-shameful-defence-reuters-journalists-conviction/
September 7, 2018
Following the International Criminal Court (ICC)’s ruling on Thursday that it has jurisdiction over Myanmar’s deportation of the Rohingya population to Bangladesh, a crime against humanity, Biraj Patnaik, Amnesty International’s South Asia Director, said:
https://www.ipsnews.net/2018/09/myanmar-icc-decision-opens-clear-avenue-justice-rohingya/
August 27, 2018
A blistering report released by the
United Nations Fact-Finding Mission on Myanmar (FFM) today brought yet more damning evidence of the Myanmar security forces’ atrocity crimes against the Rohingya and against ethnic minorities in northern Myanmar, Amnesty International said.
https://www.ipsnews.net/2018/08/un-report-adds-mountain-evidence-myanmars-atrocities-ethnic-minorities/
July 13, 2018
IOM’s Director General William Lacy Swing said rebuilding community cohesion in Myanmar is key to resolving the crisis created by the flight of 700,000 refugees to Cox’s Bazar, Bangladesh since last August.
https://www.ipsnews.net/2018/07/dg-swing-discusses-myanmar-crisis-aung-san-suu-kyi/
June 13, 2018
The Myanmar government announced on May 31 that it will establish an independent commission of inquiry to investigate human rights violations and related issues following attacks by the Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army (ARSA) on Myanmar security posts in August last year. The president's office said the commission will consist of three people, including an international member, who will be assisted by local and international legal and technical experts. Since the announcement, the issue has been widely debated inside Myanmar, primarily on the inclusion of an international member in the commission.
https://www.ipsnews.net/2018/06/late-myanmar-avoid-internationalisation-rohingya-crisis/
March 13, 2018
When a poor, rural farming community finds itself in the middle of the fastest-growing refugee crisis in the world – doubling its population in just a few months – it’s not just the new arrivals who need support as food prices soar and infrastructure is overloaded.
https://www.ipsnews.net/2018/03/iom-fao-support-agricultural-livelihoods-forestry-bangladesh-myanmar-border/
March 2, 2018
The painful experiences of Rohingyas have once again been poignantly narrated to the visiting Nobel trio, and anyone who hasn't really been through the harrowing experiences cannot actually comprehend the horrendous nature of violence that these people have been through.
https://www.ipsnews.net/2018/03/call-myanmar-account/
January 3, 2018
When a major upsurge in violence broke out in Myanmar’s northern Rakhine state on August 25, it started an exodus that sent almost half a million of the mainly stateless Rohingya Muslim minority fleeing over the border into Bangladesh in just two months. As the year comes to an end, the number of new arrivals is now more than 655,000.
https://www.ipsnews.net/2018/01/desperate-destitute-damaged-plight-myanmars-persecuted-rohingya-muslim-refugees/
November 27, 2017
In relation to the signing of the
“Arrangement on return of displaced persons from Rakhine state” on 23 November 2017 by the governments of Myanmar and of Bangladesh, the Executive Director of the Geneva Centre for Human Rights Advancement and Global Dialogue H. E. Ambassador Idriss Jazairy has issued the following statement.
https://www.ipsnews.net/2017/11/statement-by-the-executive-director-of-the-geneva-centre-regarding-bangladesh-myanmar-agreement-on-rohingya-refugees/
November 10, 2017
The Executive Director of the Geneva Centre for Human Rights Advancement and Global Dialogue (hereinafter “
The Geneva Centre”) Ambassador Idriss Jazairy emphasized - during a lecture on 10 November at the Oxford Centre for Islamic Studies - that the denial of equal citizenship rights to the Rohingya population is breeding radicalization and inter-communal violence in Myanmar.
https://www.ipsnews.net/2017/11/ambassador-jazairy-myanmars-rohingyas-denied-right-rights/
October 9, 2017
Tragedy struck more Rohingya refugees fleeing violence in Myanmar last night. At least 13 people, mostly children, drowned when the fishing boat carrying them to safety in Bangladesh capsized in stormy weather.
https://www.ipsnews.net/2017/10/rohingya-children-drown-fleeing-myanmar-violence/