Immigration Chief To Head Rohingya Probes

[george]

Rohingya inquiry gets new chief

BANGKOK: -- The head of the Immigration Bureau, Chatchawan Suksomchit, has been assigned to supervise the handling of all cases relating to Rohingya migrants, Department of Special Investigation (DSI) director-general Thawee Sodsong said on Friday.

Pol Lt-Gen Chatchawan had been assigned to the job by Prime MInister Abhisit Vejjajiva, he said.

The immigration chief said later that the investigation would target human trafficking, because the Rohingya migrants arriving without legal papers, whether they were voluntary or not, were all considered illegal immigrats,

It was probable the investigation would expand to include illegal migrants from Pakistan, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Iraq and Iran, he said.

Forensic expert Khunying Porntip Rojanasunan has also been assigned by the prime minister to help investigate these cases.

-- Bangkok Post 2009-03-06

[Chang_paarp]

I wonder how large the lump in the carpet will be?

[dee123]

Rohingya inquiry gets new chief

BANGKOK: -- The head of the Immigration Bureau, Chatchawan Suksomchit, has been assigned to supervise the handling of all cases relating to Rohingya migrants, Department of Special Investigation (DSI) director-general Thawee Sodsong said on Friday.

Pol Lt-Gen Chatchawan had been assigned to the job by Prime MInister Abhisit Vejjajiva, he said.

The immigration chief said later that the investigation would target human trafficking, because the Rohingya migrants arriving without legal papers, whether they were voluntary or not, were all considered illegal immigrats,

It was probable the investigation would expand to include illegal migrants from Pakistan, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Iraq and Iran, he said.

Forensic expert Khunying Porntip Rojanasunan has also been assigned by the prime minister to help investigate these cases.

-- Bangkok Post 2009-03-06

What is he investigating? why they had no passports? or the reports that they were whipped tied up and sent back to sea with no food or water? or the role Manas Kongpan of ISOC played in the handling of this terrible affair?

[peecee]

Their brief will be to officially exonerate the military.

[Briggsy]

Expect the whitewash report to be released in 2012.

[seri thai]

Expect the whitewash report to be released in 2012.

Lest we forget.....

Malaysian government cracks down on immigrant workers By Terry Cook 4 February 2002

Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad’s government last month stepped up its campaign to expel tens of thousands of immigrant workers from Malaysia. On January 24, Assistant Deputy Prime Minister Datuk Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi announced what he termed a “temporary halt” on the recruitment of Indonesian workers by Malaysian businesses.

Malaysia begs expelled immigrant workers to return By Justin Huggler, Asia Correspondent Friday, 27 May 2005

LABOUR-MALAYSIA: Recession to Hit Migrant Workers Hard By Baradan Kuppusamy Oct 2008

"I don’t want to lose my job or get deported," he said, eyes brimming with tears. "I have a family to support and a Rs 40,000 (800 US dollars) debt to settle."

It is a time of great unease for Malaysia’s estimated 3.5 million legal and illegal, low-paid foreign workers who face a dreadful future in an unfriendly country as a global financial meltdown begins to take effect.

It does not help that neighbouring Singapore, already in recession, is expected to retrench workers and some 300,000 Malaysians working there have suddenly become vulnerable.

The government has already formed a special task force that will find ways to accommodate retrenched Malaysians returning not only from Singapore but also Taiwan, Japan and the Middle East.

"The foreign workers are at the lowest rungs of the scale and already vulnerable. It is now a question of how soon recession will hit the country," labour leader Siva Nathan told IPS. "When that happens, the migrant workers will be the first to go," he said.

Already there are signs of an official toughening of the attitudes against migrant workers, 2.2 million of whom are documented while the rest are considered "illegal immigrants."

Malaysia’s notorious ‘RELA’, an untrained and voluntary uniformed body, is already stepping up raids across the country to arrest undocumented workers and deport them.

[Briggsy]

Malaysia's record is certainly not whiter than white but despite having a much larger and entrenched population of legal & illegal foreign migrants, it has never practised mass murder/manslaughter that the Thai Army and Navy seem to have no problem with.

[Plus]

mass murder/manslaughter

It could have been manslaughter potentially. Luckily it didn't happen and there were no hundreds of dead.

Those who like to blame Thailand for not accepting tens of thousands of muslim males (Rohingyas) should offer solutions themselves.

[Scott]

There are a lot of things that can be done. First, there is an entire UN agency whose mandate is to take care of refugees/displaced persons--it's called UNHCR. Secondly, S.E. Asian gov'ts can cooperate in allowing the arrivals to be screened to determine their true status, because most of them would probably meet the criteria of Refugee Status or for non-signatory countries to the conventions on refugees, they are classified as Persons of Concern.

The UN and western countries can then begin to put the screws to Myanmar to clean up their act and grant these people a status that allows them a reasonable amount of freedom.

Let's remember that once these people--who aren't citizens according to Myanmar--leave, they are under no obligation to take them back. As it is, they have said they will only allow one recognized ethnic group to return.

The UN can negotiate for people to be inside Myanmar--both UN officials and quasi-governmental organizations to see that their rights are protected.

It's easy to call them all economic migrants--and they are, but most of them have much bigger problems at home than just economics.

There are no really easy solutions, but the expediency of towing them out to sea, is hardling a reasonable solution.

[seri thai]

mass murder/manslaughter

It could have been manslaughter potentially. Luckily it didn't happen and there were no hundreds of dead.

Those who like to blame Thailand for not accepting tens of thousands of muslim males (Rohingyas) should offer solutions themselves.

Malaysian PM recommends rough justice for refugees

Bangladesh News.Net

Friday 27th February, 2009

The prime minister of Malaysia has suggested boat people from Myanmar should be pushed back out to sea if they attempt to land in Southeast Asia looking for asylum.

Malaysian prime minister, Abdullah Ahmad Badawi, said the case of Rohingya refugees had escalated into a major problem for the region.

Thousands of the stateless Muslim Rohingya have fled Myanmar for the shores of Thailand, Malaysia and Indonesia, due to poor treatment and lack of recognition in their own country.

Their plight was only highlighted recently when hundreds were believed to have drowned after being pushed out to sea by the Thai military.

Speaking in Bangkok, Badawi said: 'We have to be firm at all borders. We have to turn them back.'

Badawi is in Thailand for the annual summit of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, a 10-nation bloc which includes Myanmar.

and from 1978....

Why the boat people monuments

in Galang Indonesia and Bidong Malaysia must be preserved

THE DEAD DID EXIST – Why the boat people monuments in Galang Indonesia and Bidong Malaysia must be preserved

By Ngo Nhan Dung

Translated by Quynh Dao

A woman arranged for her and her three children to escape Vietnam by boat after visiting her husband at the concentration camp.

Discreetly, he told her: "I have no chance of return. You and the children, please try to get out of the country." The mother and her three children never reached the shore. They drowned somewhere between the Vietnam sea and the Indonesian islands. Now, the father, currently living in America, is constantly tormented by the gnawing question – Am I responsible for all this? Another mother buried her husband after his failed suicide attempt in the concentration camp.

He was seriously ill after that and was allowed to be brought home to die. She wanted the children to escape because they belonged to the tainted class, they would not be allowed to go to university, they would not be able to get a government job, in a country where the private business sector was outlawed. The couple had two sons and four daughters, the eldest volunteered to embark on the dangerous journey first, he was sixteen. One month later, the news came. The young boy and all his companions had vanished at sea. The remaining members of the family settle in America; the presence of the deceased, father and son, one old one young, is always felt, on the family altar. I have personal knowledge about these stories, because all the people involved are my relatives.

I know a man who was part of an escape ring; because they had the assistance of the communist cadres who took bribe in gold taels, these escapes were termed "semi-official escapes". After helping many to escape successfully, he eventually decided for the whole family to leave. The group procured a big boat, with ample supply of food,

water, medicine and even weapons for self-defence. The boat capsized in Philippines, it tipped over when people all rushed to one side.

His wife and all his children died; he survived, a walking ghost, for deep down in his heart, he had also died. I often see him but never dare to bring up this tragedy.

We, the refugees who survived, all have relatives, or someone we know, vanished in the South sea. Many boats capsized, many other drifted aimlessly until food and water ran out. How many died of hunger, of thirst, or found themselves lost somewhere in the myriad of archipelagos in the vast ocean? How many were slaughtered by pirates? In the former refugee camps of Bidong Malaysia and Galang Indonesia, the cemeteries where hundreds of refugees were buried are still there. Mass graves were dug for hundreds of bodies all from the same boat, their drifting wreckage was pulled to shore but everyone in it had long ago drawn their last breath.

[Scott]

The plight of individuals faced with these difficult choices about staying or fleeing are very often sad and tragic. For every success story, there are untold and often unknown tragedies.

My problem with the stance of the Malaysian gov't (as well as Thailand's) is that they pussy-foot around with their 'non-interference policy', but seem to be pretty firm and beligerent when facing a boatload of half-starved people that can offer no resistence.

Gutless. Very gutless.