Australia's hardline asylum seeker policy is no match for the oppression in Myanmar for Muslim minority.
Kutupalong New Camp on the Burma-Bangladesh border. More than 55,000 Rohingya refugees from Burma live here, jammed into low, wooden shanties covered with plastic bags to keep the monsoon rain out. Photo: Ben Doherty
Myanmar's Rohingya are fleeing their country in unprecedented numbers – and more and more are looking to Australia for sanctuary.
Undeterred by threats of resettlement offshore or years in immigration detention, increasing numbers of Myanmar's Muslim ethnic minority are paying people smugglers up to $5000 to board boats for a complicated journey through Malaysia, Indonesia and, for those who can afford it, ultimately to Australia.
Advocacy group The Arakan Project estimates 37,000 Rohingya have boarded boats for those three countries in the past 10 months. Few Rohingya fleeing Myanmar have reached Australian shores previously but, following widespread communal violence last year and increasing state-sanctioned oppression since, the numbers have risen exponentially.
A boy watches fishing boats leave from the southern coast of Bangladesh. Rohingya are, increasing numbers, boarding people smugglers' boats like these, and meeting up with cargo ships further out to sea, which take them to Thailand, Malaysia, and Indonesia. Photo: Shumon Ahmed
In 2012, the total number of Myanmarese asylum seekers who reached Australia by boat was eight. Already this year, that figure is 244.
Because Rohingya are banned from citizenship in Myanmar, many are registered as stateless when they reach Australian shores. The number of stateless arrivals has jumped from about 25 five years ago to 379 in 2011 and 1241 last year. Already this year, there have been 1827 stateless people arrive in Australian waters by boat seeking asylum.
Other migrants, such as Palestinians and Kurds, are often counted as stateless but sources tell Fairfax a large proportion of the current count is Rohingya.
The Australian government is aware of the trend and is making inquiries in Bangladesh and Myanmar about the movement of Rohingya.
In Dhaka recently, High Commissioner to Bangladesh Greg Wilcock warned that Australia had not resettled any Rohingya arriving by boat since 2009-10: "We used to allow Rohingya refugees to settle in Australia, but not anymore."
The Rohingya face increasing levels of oppression in their homeland, the western state of Rakhine, in Buddhist-majority Myanmar.
Aside from being denied the protections of citizenship, they are forbidden from marrying without permission, which is rarely given, and can be jailed for relations outside of wedlock.
In June and October last year, more than 200 people died and 140,000 were forced from their homes in rioting between Rohingya and the ethnic Burmese majority.
Australia still receives only a tiny proportion of the Rohingya fleeing Myanmar. Some 200,000 have lived for years in squalid refugee camps on the Bangladesh border, while tens of thousands have boarded boats for other countries in recent months.
Sources inside Myanmar say 800 Rohingya have drowned at sea since October.
Despite the risks, and Australia's new "hardline" policy on boat arrivals, Australia is increasingly seen as an attractive option. In Kutupalong refugee camp, Mohammed Zolil says he fled after his two friends were killed in anti-Muslim attacks last year.
"What I hear from other people is it is peaceful in Australia, and so I wish I could go to Australia. I hear a lot of people go to Australia."
He says Australia's policy change is known, but people believe their people smugglers over a distant government.
"A few days ago, I've heard from someone over the phone that the government does not allow to go inside Australia, they'll send them somewhere else . . . but even after all this difficulty, still people will try."
Mohammed Iqbal Hussain, a teacher, says people are encouraged by others who've gone before them.
"People who have succeeded in going to Australia have told us that it is peaceful there. In [Myanmar] there is a lot of unrest, and in Bangladesh too, our lives are not so certain."
Chris Lewa, founder of The Arakan Project, says Rakhine state is an open-air prison for Rohingya, from which more are looking to escape.
"It has changed. Many brokers in Bangladesh are now promising people once they are in Malaysia they will continue to Australia . . . and more and more people are making the move towards Australia straight away."
Many Rohingya don't believe Australia can or will implement its new PNG resettlement policy on a large scale.
"They still believe they are going to make it to Australia," Mr Lewa said. "People look at implementation, and while there are no Rohingya on PNG, I don't think they are going to take this announcement very seriously."
Read more: http://www.theage.com.au/world/rohingya-look-to-australia-despite-png-solution-20130813-2ru99.html#ixzz2bwo7eBY2
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