From the category archives:

South Asia

Refugees International: INDIA – Close the Gap for Burmese Refugees

9 December 2009

Like Burma’s other neighbors, India hosts a large and growing refugee population, the majority of whom are Chin ethnic minorities. India generally tolerates the presence of Burmese refugees, but does not afford them any legal protection, leaving them vulnerable to harassment, discrimination, and deportation.

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The terrifying voyage of Burma’s boat people

24 November 2009

Here’s a formula for making a killing in times of crisis. Go to the south-eastern tip of Bangladesh, on the border with Burma, and buy an old fishing boat. It’ll cost 100,000 taka, or about £900. Then budget 450 pounds, for rice and drinking water, and maybe another £450 for bribes. Then head off and trawl for clients among the most destitute communities in Bangladesh – a country so densely populated country and so poor that for Britain to be on similar economic terms it would have to have a population of 200 million with an average income around four per cent of what a Briton’s is today.

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Joint Statement Calling for the Protection of Displaced Peoples, Civilians and Human Rights in Sri Lanka

19 May 2009

We, the undersigned, are disturbed by the deplorable human rights and displaced people’s protection situation in Sri Lanka resulting from the recent clashes between the Sri Lankan military and the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE).

The Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) estimates that almost 200,000 civilians have been internally displaced due to the escalating violence in the region over the past two months. This exodus brings the total number of internally displaced people (IDPs) in Sri Lanka to over 500,000, making it one of the most acute IDP situations in the world. IDPs fleeing the conflict zone have not been permitted freedom of movement instead being forcibly detained in more than 29 camps, public buildings and transit sites in government‐controlled areas, in many cases separated from family members and without access to adequate food, water and sanitation, medical assistance and psycho‐social care, or protection for particularly vulnerable groups, especially women and children. IDPs also do not have access to human rights organisations or other civil society groups.

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