Migrants totaling 100 arrested

Network Media Group
14 January 2008.

For the third time this year over 100 Rohingiya migrants from Arakan state, western Burma were arrested today morning.

Over 100 Rohingyas who are Muslims and hail from Muangdaw area, Arakan state were arrested at 4 am when they crossed over to Thailand's territorial waters.  Thai security forces rounded them up, said Yin, a Thai woman who is helping them and working with the Grassroots Human Rights Education department.

"Currently 109 migrants have been arrested and are detained at Thai police stations. Over 20 migrants will arrive at the police station. There will be total of 150 migrants in custody. Some evaded arrest," she said.

Most of the detained are men. There are three children of the ages of 14 to 15 in the group. The arrested migrants have been detained at the Khurat Buri police station.

Ko Maung Ko from the Grassroots Human Rights Education department said that those detained migrated to Thailand because of they have been facing economic difficulties in the Arakan region.

"Their paddy fields were confiscated. Therefore they have been facing difficulties in terms of day to day survival because the Burma Army oppresses them a lot," Ko Maung Ko said.

Most migrants from Arakan region go to work in Malaysia and they bring their contact phone numbers with them.