More than 1,600 Rohingya Muslims have been arrested in the last five years and sentenced to the harshest possible penalties in Myanmar for leaving their home to seek a better life, according to a new report.
Most of those arrested were sentenced to “hard labor” for between two to five years under the country’s controversial laws, said the report by the London-based Burma Human Rights Network (BHRN).
The report, Nowhere to Run in Burma: Rohingya Trapped Between an Open-air Prison and Jail sets out how Rohingya have been stripped of citizenship, denied the right to their identity under domestic laws, and subjected to severe travel restrictions in Rakhine State of Myanmar.
The report documents 160 separate cases amounting to the arrests of at least 1,675 Rohingya Muslims.
They were convicted under two controversial laws; the 1949 Residents of Burma Registration Act and the 1947 Burma Immigration (Emergency Provisions) Act, which bans them from leaving Rakhine State.
The figure includes Rohingya children, who received similar sentences but are separated from their parents or relatives and detained in either juvenile detention centres or youth training centres run by the Ministry of Social Welfare, Relief and Resettlement, according to the report.
“When Rohingya attempt to exercise their right to freedom of movement and seek a better life for themselves, they face being criminalised for travelling without identity documents, or the travel authorisations that are virtually impossible to obtain,” the rights group said.
Source: AA
