#ransom for trafficked rohingya
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The UN’s refugee agency revealed that at least 569 Rohingya died or went missing at sea last year trying to migrate mainly from Bangladesh – making the waters between the Bay of Bengal and Andaman Sea one of the world’s deadliest stretches.
A former broker in the camps – who was paid almost £300 for each person he could persuade to make the journey – says that ransoms taken while the victims were held in secret locations were a key part of the process, despite many having paid upfront or made agreements to pay once they had reached their destination.
Death, abuse and torture: traffickers hold fleeing Rohingya to ransom for up to £3000 a time | Rohingya | The Guardian
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(This article contains descriptions of violent language directed towards refugees and women which some readers may find distressing)
Abdul Wahid, 40, came to Malaysia seven years ago in a rickety fishing boat cramped with 135 others—it’s a number he still remembers to this day. He, his wife and baby never planned to go to Malaysia. But they were forced to flee from the Myanmar Army who burned down their village in Rakhine State.
“It was chaos, people were shot by the Myanmar soldiers and our homes burned down,” Abdul Wahid says of the attacks that befell his village. “We ran to the shore and got into a big fishing boat that belonged to one of the villagers and escaped. We didn’t know where to go, except that we had to flee.”
Desperation and a lack of options led to a string of events that resulted in Abdul Wahid and his family being held for ransom by traffickers and taken to Malaysia. In the seven years since, he has worked in a variety of jobs illegally—from pushing vegetable carts in a wholesale market, to collecting recyclables and working in construction. His most recent job was welding air-conditioners for meagre wages of between US$8 and US$12 per day.
Malaysia is not a signatory of the United Nations Refugees Convention and does not recognise refugee status nor allow refugees to work legally. According to the UN Refugee Agency, as of the end of April 2020, some 177,800 refugees and asylum seekers were registered with the UN in Malaysia, the vast majority of whom—101,280—are Rohingya from Myanmar.
“It was chaos, people were shot by the Myanmar soldiers and our homes burned down…We didn’t know where to go, except that we had to flee.”
Abdul Wahid lost his job in March when the government’s Movement Control Order (MCO) was put in force in response to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Since then, he has relied on charitable food donations from local NGOs in the area of Selayang, Kuala Lumpur. “I have no income and I haven’t been able to pay rent nor feed my family for the last three months. I worry that my landlord will kick us out,” he says.
As the pandemic raged on, things got even more difficult for refugees in Malaysia like Abdul Wahid.
Anti-Rohingya hate speech, often stemming from fabricated content, began to emerge on social media and messaging apps, which soon erupted into a seemingly organised online campaign against refugees. It has turned some netizens not only against asylum seekers like Abdul Wahid and his family, but also against migrants, especially the undocumented, who have long been a part of Malaysian society.
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3 Rohingya Men Die in ‘Gunfight’ with Police in Bangladesh
Three Rohingya men, suspected of being child abductors, were killed in a gunfight with lawmen near a refugee camp in South-Eastern Bangladesh, according to police.
Officer Pradip Kumar said the gunfight took place on Friday when the law-enforcement officers raided a den of criminals based on information that they had taken a child hostage for ransom from a family near the Leda refugee camp.
Police retaliated after the gang fired their guns, leaving three of them dead by the side of a hill in Teknaf, located over 370 kilometres South-East of the capital Dhaka, he added.
The child was rescued unhurt as other members of the criminal gang fled the scene, Kumar said.
Police also found firearms and bullets at the scene.
The group abducted the child few days ago and asked the family to pay nearly 6,000 dollars as ransom for his release, according to a case filed with the police.
The officer said a group of Rohingya Muslims, living in the refugee camps set up after their mass exodus from Myanmar in 2017, have been involved in various criminal activities, including abduction, trafficking, drug smuggling and murder, in and around the camps.
Bangladesh has been hosting over one million Rohingya Muslims in crowded camps in South-Eastern Cox’s Bazar district after they were driven away from their homes in neighbouring Rakhine state of Buddhist-majority Myanmar.
Of them, nearly 750,000 crossed the border after the Myanmar army launched a crackdown against the minority group in August 2017.
The United Nations termed the clampdown a “textbook example of ethnic cleansing.’’
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Ransoms allegedly demanded holding Rohingyas hostage
Rohingya refugees who are attempting to reach Malaysia by boat from Bangladesh are being held hostage by human traffickers who have demanded large ransoms from their relatives with threats of violence, according to a Reuters report.
Bangla News
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Twitter co-founder and chief executive officer Jack Dorsey recently went on a birthday trip to Myanmar. As Dorsey recounted in a series of tweets to his 4.1 million followers, he studied Vipassana meditation. The practice’s “singular objective is to hack the deepest layer of the mind and reprogram it,” Dorsey wrote, and it is “likely be good for those suffering chronic pain to help manage it.”
Myanmar has denied citizenship to Rohingya people, a minority in the country, for decades. In 2016, the systemic persecution of the Rohingya, the majority of whom are Muslim, escalated into wide-scale rapes and massacres. As more than 720,000 Rohingya people fled to neighboring Bangladesh, the United Nation High Commissioner for Human Rights described the atrocities against them as a “textbook example of ethnic cleansing.” UN-appointed investigators have called for top military officials in Myanmar to be prosecuted for genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes.
Even though the crimes against Rohingya people have been well-documented in articles by major media outlets around the world (three of which are excerpted below), not once did Dorsey mention them in the more than a dozen tweets he wrote about his trip, all of which are also included in order.
(Article excerpts below from “Rohingya Recount Atrocities: ‘They Threw My Baby Into a Fire’,” written by Jeffrey Gettleman and published on Oct. 11, 2017 by the New York Times)
‘Hundreds of women stood in the river, held at gunpoint, ordered not to move.
A pack of soldiers stepped toward a petite young woman with light brown eyes and delicate cheekbones. Her name was Rajuma, and she was standing chest-high in the water, clutching her baby son, while her village in Myanmar burned down behind her.
“You,” the soldiers said, pointing at her.”‘
For my birthday this year, I did a 10-day silent vipassana meditation, this time in Pyin Oo Lwin, Myanmar . We went into silence on the night of my birthday, the 19th. Here’s what I know
— jack (@jack) December 9, 2018
‘She froze.
“You!”
She squeezed her baby tighter.’
Vipassana is a technique and practice to “know thyself.” Understanding the inner nature as a way to understand…everything. It was rediscovered by Gautama the Buddha 2,500 years ago through rigorous scientific self-experimentation to answer the question: how do I stop suffering?
— jack (@jack) December 9, 2018
‘In the next violent blur of moments, the soldiers clubbed Rajuma in the face, tore her screaming child out of her arms and hurled him into a fire. She was then dragged into a house and gang-raped.’
Vipassana’s singular objective is to hack the deepest layer of the mind and reprogram it: instead of unconsciously reacting to feelings of pain or pleasure, consciously observe that all pain and pleasure aren’t permanent, and will ultimately pass and dissolve away.
— jack (@jack) December 9, 2018
‘By the time the day was over, she was running through a field naked and covered in blood. Alone, she had lost her son, her mother, her two sisters and her younger brother, all wiped out in front of her eyes, she says.’
Most meditation methods end with a goal of strengthening concentration: focus on the breath. This was not Gautama’s goal. He wanted to end his attachment to craving (of pleasure) and aversion (of pain) by experiencing it directly. His theory was ending attachment ends his misery.
— jack (@jack) December 9, 2018
‘Rajuma is a Rohingya Muslim, one of the most persecuted ethnic groups on earth, and she now spends her days drifting through a refugee camp in Bangladesh in a daze.’
Imagine sitting on a concrete floor cross-legged for an hour without moving. Pain arises in the legs in about 30-45 minutes. One’s natural reaction is to change posture to avoid the pain. What if, instead of moving, one observed the pain and decided to remain still through it?
— jack (@jack) December 9, 2018
Many people in the refugee camps have been eerily stoic — seemingly traumatized past the ability to feel. In dozens of interviews with survivors who said their loved ones had been killed in front of them, not a single tear was shed.
But as she reached the end of her horrible testimony, Rajuma broke down.
Vipassana would likely be good for those suffering chronic pain to help manage it. That’s not the goal of course, but definitely a simple practice to help. Being able to sit without moving at all for over an hour through pain definitely teaches you a lot about your potential.
— jack (@jack) December 9, 2018
“I can’t explain how hard it hurts,” she said, tears rolling off her cheeks, “to no longer hear my son call me ma.”
Meditation is often thought of as calming, relaxing, and a detox of all the noise in the world. That’s not vipassana. It’s extremely painful and demanding physical and mental work. I wasn’t expecting any of that my first time last year. Even tougher this year as I went deeper.
— jack (@jack) December 9, 2018
(The following article excerpts are from “Bangladesh: Rohingya rape survivors battle stigma” by Linah Alsaafin, Aug. 8, 2018, Al Jazeera)
‘Last year’s Eid al-Adha holiday is a nightmarish memory Fatima wishes she could block forever.
Instead, she is forced to live with the horror and shame every time she recalls what happened.’
I did my meditation at Dhamma Mahimã in Pyin Oo Lwin. This is my room. Basic. During the 10 days: no devices, reading, writing, physical excercise, music, intoxicants, meat, talking, or even eye contact with others. It’s free: everything is given to meditators by charity. pic.twitter.com/OhJqXKInD3
— jack (@jack) December 9, 2018
‘Fatima, whose real name was changed to protect her privacy, is a widow and mother of five girls. She fled her village of Merula, in Myanmar’s Rakhine state, as a government-backed attack on the minority Rohingya population escalated, in what the United Nations described as “textbook ethnic cleansing”.’
I woke up at 4 am every day, and we meditated until 9 pm. There were breaks for breakfast, lunch, and walking. No dinner. Here’s the sidewalk I walked for 45 minutes every day. pic.twitter.com/xDI7gLx6mW
— jack (@jack) December 9, 2018
‘Fatima’s daughters crossed into Bangladesh before her, as it is the custom for Rohingya women to send their children ahead with the village men making their way to the border. As the violence spiralled into chaos, she decided to leave.’
On day 11, all I wanted to do was listen to music, and I again turned to my favorite poet, @kendricklamar and his album DAMN. The greatest effect coming out of silence is the clarity one has in listening. Every note stands alone. https://t.co/FliDncWfnC
— jack (@jack) December 9, 2018
‘In August last year, she reached Daungkhali Char, an island in Myanmar across the Naf River from Bangladesh, before her luck ran out.
She said two Myanmar soldiers dragged her away to a field and for the next two days raped her repeatedly, sometimes to the point where she lost consciousness.’
Myanmar is an absolutely beautiful country. The people are full of joy and the food is amazing. I visited the cities of Yangon, Mandalay, and Bagan. We visited and meditated at many monasteries around the country. pic.twitter.com/wMp3cmkfwi
— jack (@jack) December 9, 2018
‘”I don’t know how many times they violated my body,” Fatima said in a voice barely above a murmur.’
The highlight of my trip was serving monks and nuns food, and donating sandals and umbrellas. This group of young nuns in Mandalay and their chanting was breathtaking and chilling. pic.twitter.com/E2nHFOsHu2
— jack (@jack) December 9, 2018
‘When the soldiers decided to move on, she crossed the Naf River into Bangladesh, numb to the bone and dazed out of her mind.
“I was unaware of my senses for a while,” she said. “I found out five months later I was pregnant. I tried to have an abortion by swallowing pills, but that didn’t work.”‘
We also meditated in a cave in Mandalay one evening. In the first 10 minutes I got bit 117 times by mosquitoes They left me alone when the light blew a fuse, which you can see in my heart rate lowering. pic.twitter.com/rz59Wx9yHF
— jack (@jack) December 9, 2018
‘She looked down at the baby nestled in the crook of her arm. “I didn’t tell anyone he was conceived through rape.”
Four-month-old Bilal fussed and started wailing. Distractedly, Fatima rubbed his back in circular motions until he fell quiet again.’
I also wore my Apple Watch and Oura ring, both in airplane mode. My best meditations always had the least variation in heart rate. When I wasn’t focused, it would jump around a lot. Here’s a night of sleep on the 10th night (my resting heart rate was consistently below 40). pic.twitter.com/9fiz8s8DR5
— jack (@jack) December 9, 2018
(The following excerpts are from “The Survivors of the Rohingya Genocide” by Jason Motlagh, Aug. 9, 2018, Rolling Stone)
‘The Rohingya have been called the “world’s most persecuted minority.” An estimated 1.1 million lived in Myanmar before the crisis, the descendants of Muslim traders who settled in the region more than 1,000 years ago. Though many Rohingya families have documentation going back generations, they are denied citizenship and basic rights.’
Vipassana is not for everyone, but if any of this resonates with you even in the slightest, I’d encourage you to give it a try. If in the US, this center in Texas is a great start: https://t.co/4Brke5RU85
— jack (@jack) December 9, 2018
‘Two months after the country’s first modern elections, in June 2012, anti–Muslim pogroms broke out in Rakhine following the rape and murder of a Buddhist woman; 140,000 Rohingya were forced into open-air concentration camps. Squeezed between barbed wire and the sea, tens of thousands fled by boats to Thailand and Malaysia, only to become ensnared by traffickers and tortured for ransom.’
Thanks for reading! Always happy to answer any questions about my experience. Will track responses to this thread. I’ll continue to do this every year, and hopefully do longer and longer each time. The time I take away to do this gives so much back to me and my work.
— jack (@jack) December 9, 2018
‘In May 2015, the crisis made global headlines when boats packed with starving Rohingya were stranded at sea. For weeks, no country would accept them. “That’s the unique burden stateless people carry,” says Wade. “Even those nations most vociferously condemning the military know it’s not their problem.”’
A repatriation agreement between Bangladesh and Myanmar was put on hold in November as refugees protested that they would not return unless their demands for citizenship and human rights are met.
via TechCrunch
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In 2015 there was a crackdown on human trafficking. Thousands of refugees were found to have been abandoned at sea without a sufficient supply of food, water, and medical care. The UN estimated around 370 people died from January through June 2015, although Amnesty International believes the figure is higher. Hundreds and possibly thousands of the Rohingya that fled were unaccounted for and some died on their journey or were sold for labor. Some were shot by traffickers or thrown overboard while others died from the lack of food and water or disease. Refugees were also beaten by the traffickers.
“’The shocking truth is that those we spoke to are the ‘lucky’ ones who made it to shore – countless others perished at sea or were trafficked into forced labour situations. Governments must do more to prevent this human tragedy from recurring.’
The harrowing events that unfolded in May 2015 – triggered by Thailand’s crackdown on human trafficking, and the traffickers’ subsequent abandonment of people at sea – left thousands of refugees and migrants stranded for weeks in desperate need of food, water and medical care.
While the UN estimates that at least 370 people lost their lives between January and June 2015, Amnesty International believes the true figure to be much higher. Eyewitnesses who spoke to Amnesty International saw dozens of large boats full of refugees and migrants in similar circumstances, but only five boats landed in Indonesia and Malaysia according to UN sources. Hundreds – if not thousands – of people remain unaccounted for, and may have died during their journeys or been sold for forced labour.
Deaths and beatings for money
Many Rohingya said that they had seen crew members kill people when their families failed to pay ransoms. Some people were shot by the traffickers on the boats while others were thrown overboard and left to drown. Others died because of lack of food and water or disease.
Refugees described how they were kept for months on very large boats and severely beaten while traffickers contacted their family members, demanding a ransom. One 15-year-old Rohingya girl said the crew called her father in Bangladesh, made him listen to her cries while they beat her, and told him to pay them about USD 1,700.
Virtually every Rohingya woman, man and child said they had either been beaten themselves or seen others suffer serious physical abuse. People were beaten with metal or plastic batons – sometimes for several hours – simply for begging for food, moving or asking to use the toilet. Many have been left with long-term physical or psychological scars from the violence.
Beatings were often carried out in a chillingly routine and systematic way. One 15-year old Rohingya boy said: ‘In the morning you were hit three times. In the afternoon you were hit three times. At night you were hit nine times.’
Persecuted at home
The Rohingyas’ desperation stems from decades of persecution and discrimination in Myanmar, where they are effectively denied citizenship under national law. Waves of violence against the Rohingya, most recently erupting in 2012, have forced tens of thousands into overcrowded camps where they live in desperate conditions.
Some people said that they had been abducted by traffickers in Myanmar or Bangladesh, whereas others had been promised a safe passage to Malaysia for a nominal fee – a tactic commonly used by traffickers looking to coerce people into forced labour.
‘The Rohingya are so desperate that they will continue to risk their lives at sea until the root causes of this crisis are addressed – the Myanmar government must immediately end its persecution of the Rohingya,’ said Anna Shea.
Hellish conditions
The Rohingya were kept in inhuman and degrading conditions during their journeys. Boats were severely overcrowded, with people forced to sit in extremely cramped positions, sometimes for months on end. A local man who helped rescue people off the coast of Aceh in Indonesia said that the stench was so bad that rescuers could not board.
Food and water was severely lacking and rations usually consisted of a small cup of rice per day. Many of the Rohingya who reached Indonesia were emaciated, had difficulty walking after being cramped for so long, and suffered from dehydration, malnourishment, bronchitis, and flu.
Conditions in Indonesia
In May 2015, Indonesia, Malaysia and Thailand initially pushed overcrowded vessels back from their shores and prevented thousands of desperate passengers from disembarking. Following international criticism, Indonesia and Malaysia eventually agreed to admit a number of asylum-seekers, on the condition that another country accept them by May 2016.
Indonesia should be recognized for devoting resources to housing hundreds of vulnerable people in its Aceh province, and working to fulfill their basic needs in cooperation with local civil society and international agencies. But there are serious unanswered questions about a long-term solution, as the government has not clarified whether the refugees can stay beyond May 2016.
Recommendations
‘Without cooperation between governments to combat human trafficking, grave human rights abuses will again be perpetrated against some of Southeast Asia’s most vulnerable and desperate people,’ said Anna Shea.
‘Governments must ensure that initiatives against traffickers do not put people’s lives or human rights at risk, which is what happened in May 2015. They must also act quickly to implement maritime search and rescue operations.’
Amnesty International is urging Southeast Asian states to act now, and not wait for another human rights disaster at sea.
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Thailand: Guilty Verdicts in Landmark Trafficking Trial 103 suspects include 20 officials
A Thai court began handing down guilty verdicts Wednesday at the culmination of the country’s largest ever human trafficking trial, Reuters reports.
Bangkok’s Criminal Court Division for Human Trafficking had been trying 103 suspects — including 20 government officials and a Thai army general — accused of trafficking stateless Rohingya Muslims from Myanmar and Bangladeshi nationals across the Thai-Malaysia border.
Thai authorities began making arrests in 2015 after dozens of trafficking victims were found buried in a mass grave in a jungle in the country’s south. Some of the suspects in the case face life imprisonment for human trafficking, holding people for ransom, murder, and other crimes.
Only one of 22 defendants whose cases concluded in a morning session was found not guilty, according to Reuters. More guilty verdicts are expected to follow.
Southeast Asia-based non-profit Fortify Rights called the trial an “unprecedented effort by Thai authorities to hold perpetrators of human trafficking accountable” in a press release Tuesday, but noted that the proceedings were beset by threats against witnesses, interpreters and police investigators.
Source: Thailand: Guilty Verdicts in Landmark Trafficking Trial | Time.com
from Thailand: Guilty Verdicts in Landmark Trafficking Trial 103 suspects include 20 officials
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