Burma: Rohingyas are both stateless and refugees

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Kensington, Australia: Speakers at a seminar, held on March 5, said that the Rohingyas are both stateless and refugees. The seminar was on "Launch a report and film on Rohingya Refugee in Bangladesh." organized by UNHCR. It was held at the Council Chancellor Hall, Chancellery Ground Floor, University of New South Wales , Kensington, Auatralia in the morning, said Abdus Samat, the secretary of Burmese Rohingya Community in Auatralia, or BRCA in Australia .
UNHCR Geneva has subsequently published a report of the field trip and the Center for Refugee Research has made a short film of the conditions in the camps which was launched at this event.

On March 2007, a team from the Center for Refugees, Victorian Foundation for Survivors of Torture and Trauma, Amnesty International, Austeare and UNHCR Geneva and Bangladesh led a series of refugee consultations in Bangladesh . The purpose of the consultations was to pilot and further develop a research methodology and tool designed to assist UNHCR staff and humanitarian aid agency to identify and respond to those refugees who are most vulnerable and in need of immediate assistance.

It continued from 10 am to noon and Dr. Eileen Pittaway, the Director, Centre for Refugee Research was the key note speaker while Richard Towle, the Regional representative, UNHCR launched the report.

The speakers were from Amnesty International, Victorian Foundation for survivors of Torture and Trauma and Austcare.

The speakers said that the Rohingyas are both stateless and refugees persecuted in their identified homeland of Burma and denied adequate protection in the host country to which they have fled. To date, the international community has been unwilling and unable to offer an effective solution to their predicament. The report details the result of a consultation held with the Rohingya refugees in Bangladesh in March 2007 to include their voice in the deliberation about their future. It was hosted by the UNHCR and the consultation team included members from the Centre for Refugee Reasearch, Victorian Foundation for Survivors of Torture, Austcarw and Amnesty International.

Over 100 people participated in the meeting. And also two members from UNHCR regional officer, three-members from Amnesty International, four members from Victorian Foundation for Survivors of Torture, four-members from Trauma five members from Austcare, six members from the Center for Refugees Research (UNSW) and 17 members from Burmese Rohingya Community in Australia (BRCA) including Haji Abdus Samad, the secretary of BRCA and U Kyaw Maung and among others, according to U Kyaw Maung of BRCA.

The speakers also urged the government mass media and donor organizations to come forward to protect the Rohingyas.

Haji Abdus Samad, the secretary of BRCA said that the Rohingya issue has turned into a serious crisis in the last three decades due to reluctance of the Bangladesh government to solve the problems faced by the Rohingyas. Consequently they are living under subhuman conditions for decades. They are most vulnerable and in need immediate assistance including resettlement in the third country through UNHCR. As the center for Refugee Research aptly described that the Rohingyas are both stateless and refugees persecuted in their identified homeland of Burma and denied adequate protection in the host country they have fled to.

The speakers more said that the Rohingyas, on the one hand, were suffering due to government repression in Burma and, on the other, were leading inhuman lives in various countries where they had taken refuge. They also suggested that Bangladesh should hold constructive talks with Burma on the issue and find out the real reasons behind the crisis.

The keynote speakers pointed out various examples of oppression of the Rohingyas in Burma , and the inhuman life of the Rohingya refugees in various countries including Bangladesh .

The keynote speaker also urged the international community to take effective measures to improve the miserable life of Rohingyas as a member of the United Nations Human Rights Council and ask regional and international organizations to exert pressure on Burma to resolve the crisis