Myanmar ships 800 freed Rohingya prisoners back to Rakhine

By AFP

YANGON — Myanmar shipped hundreds of recently released Rohingya inmates back to the country’s restive western borderlands on Monday, after fears that its overcrowded prisons could become hotbeds for coronavirus outbreaks.

Men, women and children belonging to the stateless and long-persecuted Muslim minority were among nearly 25,000 prisoners freed last week by a presidential pardon to mark the country’s April New Year celebrations.

A Navy vessel transported the group from Yangon to western Rakhine State, where most Rohingya live under tight movement restrictions and in conditions Amnesty International has condemned as “apartheid”.

More than 600 disembarked near state capital Sittwe, while another 200 were taken further north to townships on the border with Bangladesh, state immigration department chief U Soe Lwin told AFP.

Support independent journalism in Myanmar. Sign up to be a Frontier member.

“They will be quarantined,” he added, without giving further details.

Myanmar’s biggest prisoner release in years came as coronavirus fears gripped the country, with calls for low-risk inmates to be released from what Human Rights Watch describes as Myanmar’s “horribly overcrowded and unsanitary” jails.

The World Health Organization has also warned that prison populations are particularly vulnerable to the spread of the disease.

Myanmar has only 111 confirmed COVID-19 cases but experts fear the real number is many times higher because of the low numbers tested and the country’s chronically underfunded healthcare system.

Pressure is also on Myanmar to improve its treatment of the Rohingya, after a bloody military crackdown in 2017 sent around 750,000 civilians fleeing into Bangladesh and prompted genocide charges at the UN’s top court.

The country must report back to the International Court of Justice next month, to outline the efforts it was taking to protect the minority.

Hundreds of Rohingya have been arrested and charged with immigration offences in recent years after trying to flee Rakhine state and seek refuge in other countries.

But the Rohingya garner little sympathy within Myanmar, where they are widely viewed as illegal immigrants even though many trace their roots in the country back generations.

More stories

Latest Issue

Stories in this issue
Myanmar enters 2021 with more friends than foes
The early delivery of vaccines is one of the many boons of the country’s geopolitics, but to really take advantage, Myanmar must bury the legacy of its isolationist past.
Will the Kayin BGF go quietly?
The Kayin State Border Guard Force has come under intense pressure from the Tatmadaw over its extensive, controversial business interests and there’s concern the ultimatum could trigger fresh hostilities in one of the country’s most war-torn areas.

Support our independent journalism and get exclusive behind-the-scenes content and analysis

Stay on top of Myanmar current affairs with our Daily Briefing and Media Monitor newsletters.

Sign up for our Frontier Fridays newsletter. It’s a free weekly round-up featuring the most important events shaping Myanmar