ZIAUR RAHMAN ON TRAFFICKING OF ROHINGYA REFUGEES IN BANGLADESH & THAILAND
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(Photo
is Ziaur Rahman)
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In
October 2014, Ziaur Rahman was among a boatload of 310 Rohingya &
Bangladeshi men, women, & children being kidnapped from
Bangladesh & forcibly trafficked for sale by Thai brokers. They
were taken to uninhabited islands off Thailand used as a base for
smuggling, eventually to be trucked south to Malaysia.
The
group had been divided–some were still in hiding on the island,
some had already been trucked south, & Ziaur was among a group of
53 men hiding in the bushes when Thai police intercepted them. The
traffickers fled & the Rohingya & Bangladeshi men were
incarcerated as undocumented immigrants rather than treated as
trafficking victims & asylum seekers–a common human rights
abuse in most countries, including the US. Local officials concerned
about the human rights of the 53, took them into custody & called
in human rights lawyers to defend them.
Zaiur,
who was then 22, was interviewed by Phuketwan, a local newspaper that
covered the tourist beat with restaurant & nightlife reviews
since the area is a major tourist destination but also reported local
& national news & has reported almost daily on Rohingya
abuses since 2008. Their report on the 53 arrests was a cogent,
concise, & moving report on human trafficking of thousands
through Thailand & on the persecution of Rohingya in Myanmar.
The
article reported claims by human rights groups that “increasing
numbers of men from Burma’s Rohingya Muslim minority are being
arrested & tortured because of alleged ties to a militant Islamic
organisation.” That is an alarming development for Rohingya asylum
seekers since it uses Islamophobic hysteria to justify their
indefinite incarceration, deportation, & denial of human rights
protections.
A
particularly moving part of the article quoted Ziaur who told them he
became desperate after a lifetime as a refugee in a Rohingya camp in
Bangladesh where they suffer persecution, poverty, & degradation.
To forge a better life, he left behind his mother, wife, &
one-year-old child–only to find himself in the grips of human
traffickers. It’s a reality most of us can’t imagine but common
to Rohingya fleeing genocide.
Phuketwan
quoted this moving passage by Ziaur from his FB wall:
”I
ask you, Government of Burma says, ‘This is not your land.’
“Government
of Bangladesh says ‘This is not your land. So I ask UNHCR (the UN
refugee body) I ask Burma & Bangladesh, to please tell me, ‘Where
do I belong? Where is my house? Where can I go?
”I
do not want to be a refugee any more. I just want to live in peace.”
Ziaur
is now a human rights advocate for Rohingya, currently campaigning
against their incarceration in several countries as undocumented
immigrants rather than given asylum as refugees from persecution &
genocide.
(Postscript:
in December 2014, the editor & a journalist of Phuketwan were
sued for defamation by the Royal Thai Navy for their coverage of
trafficking Rohingya. They were both acquitted in September 2015 but
were forced to end publication later that year. Their fearless
reporting & the influence of the Navy caused sponsors &
advertisers to pull out)
