Myanmar’s Navy captured 70 Rohingyas including 5 teenagers, from the area of Gaw Yin Gyi island while travelling to Malaysia by boat, according to a local source.
“They have been taken to Nga Yoke Kaung Township and are currently held in the warehouse of a purified water plant, where they are undergoing interrogation by police and immigration authorities”, a Nga Yoke Kaung resident said.
The all arrested are from the Internally Displaced People (IDP) camps of Rakhine state. They were intercepted during leaving the country to working in Malasiya, according to police source.
A Pathein resident who assist the Rohingyas said, “The Rohingya youth in the refugee camps of Rakhine State are facing a dire situation of poverty and food shortages, which has led them to believe that their future is lost, hence they have attempted to leave and embark on perilous journeys in search of a better life.”
A refugee from Bangladesh camp said, “We Rohingya born in the world to be refugee or to be prisoners only, why not, I don’t think there is any precedent of being refugee in one’s native land elsewhere in the world.”
“In both Myanmar and Bangladesh, our travel facilities are restricted to camp boundaries like caged birds. We cannot legally go abroad in search of a better life like the rest of the world. For which we have to risk our lives to a perilous journey in search of a better life. on the other hand, if we get caught, we are thrown to prison under the immigration act,” he further added.
