Muslim Rohingya refugees from Burma in need

The Society for Threatened Peoples (STP) demands more initiatives against human traffickers in south-eastern Asia who enslaved thousands of Muslim Rohingya refugees from Burma. "In 2014, more than 8,000 Rohingya refugees were abducted by unscrupulous traffickers from Bangladesh – to be sold as working slaves on plantations or in the fishing industry of southern Thailand. Others were detained in camps and tortured to extort ransom payments from their families," said Ulrich Delius, the STP's Asia-consultant, in Göttingen on Thursday. "The traffickers must be stopped as soon as possible! The Rohingya will be especially vulnerable during the next four months: due to the calm weather, this is the time when there are especially many refugee boats along the coasts of Burma."

A few months ago, the disenfranchised Rohingya in Burma still relied on the help of traffickers to flee to Malaysia and Thailand. In 2013, about 40,000 Rohingya were brought to camps in Thailand by human traffickers. Nowadays, the refugees don't want to be brought there voluntarily, because they have heard about the inhuman living conditions and the deportations to Burma. Many of the refugees who arrive in Thailand were abducted in Bangladesh against their will, to make a quick profit.

"The deportation of stateless Rohingya is one of the most cruel forms of modern slavery," said Delius. "These people are systematically denied citizen rights in their home country and mostly live in Bangladesh as illegal immigrants. By force of arms, they are kidnapped or lured on fishing boats to take them to larger ships waiting offshore. The Rohingya are then brought to remote islands in the south of Thailand, where they are either held in camps to extort large sums of money from their families for their release, or sold as cheap working slaves."

Survivors reported about inhumane conditions on the traffickers' boats. Intimidation, violence, torture and rape are commonplace. Some of the refugees were reduced to a skeleton when they were picked up by Thai police. In mid-October 2014, the governor of the southern Thai province of Phang Nga promised more measures to stop the traffickers and announced that displaced Rohingya will be treated as "victims" in future – not as "illegal immigrants".

Ulrich Delius, head of STP's Asia department, is available for further questions: +49 551 49906 27 or asien@gfbv.de.

Header Photo: European Commission DG ECHO/Flickr