Tourism News

Tourism News Phuketwan Tourism News
facebook recommendations

NEWS ALERTS

Sign up now for our News Alert emails and the latest breaking news plus new features.

Click to subscribe

Existing subscribers can unsubscribe here

RSS FEEDS

Hundreds of unwanted Rohingya have been trafficked through Thailand

SHOCK VIDEO We Don't Want Rohingya Refugees Camped Here, Say Thai Residents

Friday, May 31, 2013
UPDATE Shock Video: Cruel Cages North of Phuket

WHERE boatpeople are kept in inhumane conditions
http://blogs.channel4.com/world-news-blog/the-plight-of-burmas-rohingya-muslims-in-a-thai-camp/24226/

Original Report

PHUKET: Residents of a district in the province of Nakkorn Si Thammarat have protested all night long against a camp for Rohingya refugees being established there.

Locals added their names to a petition and invited others to sign in protest at the possibility of a camp for the unwanted boatpeople from Burma being housed nearby.

About 2000 Rohingya men, women and children are being held in Thailand while Thai authorities consider their status and their future.

The Rohingya - Muslims who have fled Burma in fear of their lives because of ethnic cleansing - were rescued from boats or freed from human traffickers' camps.

A decision on their fate is supposed to be made by Thai officials before the end of July, when a six month deadline expires.

Today the district leader of Cha-Uat in Nakkorn Si Thammarat province, Sakchai Chai Cher, told Phuketwan that the Army used a camp over about 20 rai in the area 30 or 35 years ago, but it had not been used since then.

''It's only 300 metres from the council offices and close to a school,'' he said. ''We don't think it's the right place for the Rohingya.

''There must be more suitable camps for them, closer to the Burma border.''

The protest by residents continued through the night and was abandoned this morning with other residents being urged to sign a petition.

No decision has been declared about the Thai Government's approach to the 2000 detained Rohingya but it is believed the Army is conducting research on potential camp sites.

The 2000 Rohingya pose a difficult issue for the Thai government, which does not want to encourage more Rohingya to sail south, expecting to find sanctuary in Thailand.

More than 30,000 Rohingya are thought to have left Burma by sea in the sailing season between October and April, hoping to reach Malaysia. Hundreds have been trafficked through Thailand.

Rohingya women and children are being held in family refuges on Phuket and in the neighboring province of Phang Nga while men are in captivity in Immigration cells in Phuket and Phang Nga and at other provinces around Thailand.

An Anti-Human Trafficking Day is being held at the Phang Nga family refuge next Wednesday.

Comments

Comments have been disabled for this article.

gravatar

This is sickening. Where is the compassion? These people have been through the worst nightmares anyone can imagine. They have managed to escape alive. And what do they get here? It really makes me sick.
All the open arms and fake smiles for unemployed beerbellied farangs, but the Rohingya get put in a cage. They haven't done anything wrong. I know they do not bring any money in, nor will they ever be able to 'pay back', but have people here ever heard of the concept 'pay it forward'? I'm feeling a misplaced sense of shame.

Posted by Tinkerbell on June 1, 2013 10:57

Editor Comment:

Our thoughts exactly.

gravatar

Words fail me by the conditions which are truly inhumane and inadequate... an animal I'm sure would get better treatment. Whilst I acknowledge this is solely not a Thai problem certainly they could given them the basic rights that everybody enjoys, a decent place, food, and proper shelter.

Posted by reader on June 1, 2013 11:32

Editor Comment:

But that would be sending a message Thailand does not wish to send. No sanctuary here. The alternative: Demand change from the Burmese Government and put economic benefits at risk? No chance.

gravatar

Well its Thai peoples land and if they dont want them they have the right to denide them that to, we falangs here are all guests here, if we dont like how thai people run the country we can easy leave to another country, or whats the next step, have USA invade this country and try to change the way how thai people think?

Phuketwan news is so left-winged

Posted by Joa on June 1, 2013 13:14

Editor Comment:

Nothing left-winged or right-winged about treating people properly, Joa. Nothing to be gained from running away, either . . . unless, as in the case of the Rohingya, it's a last resort to avoid certain death. For your information, Phuketwan is a Thai business and the views expressed here are shared by Thai owners and staff. For you to see this as a ''farang'' v ''thai'' issue shows you don't really get what thinking for yourself is all about. Reducing life and death issues to shallow terms is a measure of your self-deception. When you say ''we'' you mean ''me.''

gravatar

for all "compassionate" members of this forum: why don't you ask your governement to welcome these poor people? There might be a good place in your neighbourhood.
Or better: why don't you welcome a family of 4 in your home and care for them (food,clothes, school ...)?
This is true compassion. Throwing words like "sickening","pay it forward","inhumane" etc.. anonymously on a forum is like rubbing your aforementioned "beerbelly" .
Has anyone on this forum done anything for the Rohingas,like donate money, time or clothes?

As for the editor,Joa, he's not left-winged, he just goes with the trend.

Posted by william on June 1, 2013 14:37

Editor Comment:

To hear the phrase ''left-wing'' applied to a human rights issue - one that Ronald Reagan and Mahatma Gandhi would have quickly agreed is non-political - reflects poorly on the few sad people who use it, william. To decry commenters for expressions of compassion is . . . well . . . the sort of thing not many thinking people do. There are always going to be degrees of compassion. Mocking criticism leaves you a long way behind those who try to express it.

gravatar

Thais have so far avoided the 'Cultural Marxism' that has infested countries like Australia. The editor constantly berates anybody who has an opinion different from his, which is so typical of the lefties dominating the media. This left wing bleeding heart competition to find the biggest victim has left places like Australia in a multi-cultural mess where every minority group sees themselves as persecuted and 'victims.' If the Thais feel the Burmese should sort out their own problems, what is wrong with that? The social utopia these left leaning media types dream about only exists in there own pointy heads.

Posted by Tommy on June 1, 2013 15:02

Editor Comment:

Sounds like you need to find a self-help group for airhead analysts, Tommy. There may never be more than one member. To try to turn human rights into petty politics shows your condition is worsening rapidly.

gravatar

Prolonged arrest under this conditions constitute torture. So the Thai government is torturing the boat people. Even sentenced murderers have far better conditions. Is there no lawyer who can go to a court with this? What did they do? Immigration offense, sure, but else? It can't be the law, that conditions like this are allowed permanently.

Posted by Lena on June 1, 2013 15:43

gravatar

Here is my experience with the rohingya people. A few months ago, me and my thai wife wanted to help out the refugees in pang gna, and we brought them food ( home made, where my wife spend a lot of time with ) and water. When we arrived there we looked down upon because the food was according to them not halal( we didn't know they only wanted halal food ). Well, if religion comes before hunger, than helping out is like a butterknife to me... pointless!When thai people do not want the rohingya here, that's there own right. So I agree with William. Who here on this forum or even the editor have personally done something, other that write or comment about this? Take 4 Burmese in your house and feed them. Or do something fysically instead of saying that it is sickening and asking where the compassion is. Praying for this cause is the same as sitting on your couch and literally doing nothing.

Posted by Charles on June 1, 2013 19:29

Editor Comment:

Phuketwan has been to the refuge in Phang Nga several times, taking halal food and items the women and children need each time. We have also taken clothes and other items on journeys to Buddhist refuges and orphanages. I am sorry for your mistake, Charles, but it seems sad to blame others for it, or to sacrifice your compassion over your misunderstanding.

gravatar

(moderated)

Posted by Bent on June 1, 2013 20:25

Editor Comment:

Perhaps you've been able to get away with your empty comments on other sites. Not here. Bent by name, short-changed by you parents.

gravatar

The editor seems to be slowly losing the plot day by day. He wants to run a news site but is unable to stop himself from attacking his own readers! His dream of a buy out from one of the big national papers will never happen. People are sick of all the sanctimonious windbags, apologists, history re-writers and misguided do-gooders infesting the media. He needs to return to the ABC or whatever leftist organisation he left. There he can happily find plenty of professional 'victims' to write about. How about laying the blame where it belongs in this story- with the Burmese themselves.

Posted by Tommy on June 1, 2013 21:47

Editor Comment:

This is your second comment, Tommy, and given the content of both comments, you fail the test of being a ''reader'' here or anywhere else. What you are is a simpleton. We can say this with accuracy because you say: ''How about laying the blame where it belongs in this story - with the Burmese themselves''. The Rohingya, of course, are not Burmese, although citizenship is what they want. If you were a Phuketwan reader, you'd know that we blamed the Burmese Government a long time ago - possibly before you were born, certainly before you misread the signs that led you to believe you had a brain. How pathetic to mount an attack on genuine readers when you have no thought processes happening. Bye, Tommy.

gravatar

(moderated) Go back to your home country and do some NGO preaching there, it's not wanted here. (moderated)

Posted by Bent on June 2, 2013 15:56

Editor Comment:

THE WORLD will not be destroyed by those who do evil, but by those who watch them without doing anything. - Albert Einstein, addressing the wimps of Phuket.


Friday November 22, 2024
Horizon Karon Beach Resort & Spa

FOLLOW PHUKETWAN

Facebook Twitter