Myanmar to screen Rohingya refugees
June 13, 2013
BALI - The Myanmar government will next week begin a process of screening the nationalities of about 2,000 Rohingya migrants now being sheltered in Thailand, Foreign Minister Surapong Tovichakchaikul said on Thursday.
Mr Surapong said Myanmar Foreign Minister Wanna Muang Lwin had informed him that Nay Pyi Taw had set up a working group, led by Myanmar ambassador to Thailand Myo Tint, to begin examining the nationalities of the Rohingya next week.
The ministers met for bilateral talks on the sidelines of the Forum for East Asia-Latin America Cooperation in Indonesia on Thursday.
The Myanmar move to deal with the Rohingya problem in Thailand was the result of earlier talks between the two countries in Brunei on the sidelines of the Asean Ministerial Meeting on April 10-11.
Mr Surapong had at that time asked Myanmar to take back Rohingya migrants in Thailand. However, Nay Pyi Taw was not convinced all 2,000 had travelled from Rakhine State, claiming some might have travelled from Bangladesh's border area to Myanmar.
Nay Pyi Taw still refuses to recognise most Rohingya as Myanmar citizens.
The nationality-screening process would examine whether they really had travelled from Rakhine State, Mr Surapong said.
He said the Rohingya migrants, including children and women, had been fleeing Rakhine State in western Myanmar to Thailand via boat since early this year.
The Thai government in January agreed to give them shelter for six months, which expires soon.
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| (Photo: YATEEM TV) |
