62 Rohingya Arrested In Irrawaddy Region

By Network Media Group
Friday, May 12, 2023

Burma’s navy has arrested 62 Rohingya, including children, in a motorboat at sea near Haigyi Island for travelling without travel documents in the latest crackdown on the persecuted ethnic minority.

“Naval officers seized all their mobile phones and money from the boat,” a local young Muslim man requesting anonymity out of security concerns, told NMG. He said they arrested 50 males and 12 females and also the boat drivers on 5 May and took them to a warehouse in Ngaputaw town in the township sharing the same name.

“They’re originally from remote villages in Buthidaung and Maungdaw townships in Rakhine State where they’re struggling to survive. They left the state to seek work,” an anonymous member of the Myanmar – Muslim Friendship Network has told NMG. Most of them were living in displaced camps the government established since 2012.

Local Muslim religious organizations and social volunteer teams in the town were trying provide them with food at press time.

According to another man working with the Myanmar – Muslim Youth Network there’s about 11 camps in Sittwe, Buthidaung and Maungdaw townships. Before the coup, aid groups were helping them but since then much of the support has dried up.

On 19 April, over 70 Rohingya fleeing camps in Rakhine State were also arrested at sea near Nga Yok Kaung in the township. The Ngaputaw Township Court sentenced them to two years for violating Article 63-A of Burma’s Immigration Act.