Myanmar: Burmese Muslim asylum-seek

[082903@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx]

Subject: Myanmar: Burmese Muslim asylum-seekers fleeing to Bangladesh 


Subject: Myanmar: Burmese Muslim asylum-seekers fleeing to Bangladesh
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AI INDEX: ASA 16/24/97
23 JULY 1997

Myanmar:  Burmese Muslim asylum-seekers fleeing to Bangladesh could face
forced labour
and other hardships if returned

The thousands of Burmese Muslim asylum-seekers fleeing to Bangladesh from
Myanmar should
not be returned to Myanmar to face the forced labour and other hardships
which compelled them to
flee in the first place, Amnesty International said today.

     According to reliable sources, up to 25,000 asylum-seekers have
arrived in the last few
months in order to escape forced labour, portering and other hardships.
They join some 21,000
other Burmese Muslims in the country.

     "Refugees have been forcibly returned to Myanmar, where forced labour
and portering
continue at a high level," Amnesty International said. " It is crucial that
 they are allowed access to
the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) immediately.  The
 Government of
Bangladesh has so far not permitted UNHCR to interview them."

     On 20 July, a group of Burmese Muslims, known as Rohingyas, were
forcibly sent back by
the Bangladeshi security forces from Nayapara and Kutupalong refugee camps
in southeastern
Bangladesh.

     About 400 refugees, some of whom were ill, were physically taken
against their will and
sent across the Naf River to Myanmar. UNHCR was not allowed to speak to
them or to perform
medical checks.

     The Bangladesh government has denied these reports, claiming that they
 are economic
migrants and that the repatriation proceeded according to an agreement
between them and
UNHCR.

     The newly arrived Rohingyas are not in camps -- and are unable to
receive any assistance or
protection from UNHCR.  Without UNHCR access they will not be able to have
their protection
needs assessed, and will not be able to receive the help they need.  Many
of them have been forcibly
returned to Myanmar by the Bangladeshi security forces without having had
that opportunity.

     The 21,000 who are in camps are the last of more than 250,000
Rohingyas who fled
killings, torture, and forced portering in 1992.  Most of them have
returned home, although there
has been no fundamental change in the human rights situation there.

     "The Government of Bangladesh must recognize that many of those who
have fled are at
risk of human rights violations if returned. It should ensure that these
refugees receive the
protection they so desperately need," Amnesty International said.

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