Myanmar collects temporary ID cards from Rohingya: State official
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| Internally displaced Rohingya women and children look from behind the fence of their temporary home at Thae Chaung IDP camp on the outskirts of Sittwe on Feb 15, 2015. Myanmar authorities have begun collecting temporary identification cards from displaced Rohingya Muslims in unrest-torn Rakhine state, an official said on Wednesday, April 1, a move that the UN has warned could strip them of all documentation. -- PHOTO: REUTERS |
By AFP
April 1, 2015
YANGON -- Myanmar authorities have begun collecting temporary identification cards from displaced Rohingya Muslims in unrest-torn Rakhine state, an official said on Wednesday, a move that the UN has warned could strip them of all documentation.
Officials, backed by security forces, visited almost a dozen camps for people displaced by violence between Buddhists and Muslims in the western state.
They asked people there to hand back the so-called "white cards", following a shock presidential declaration in February that they would expire on March 31.
"Immigration officers said yesterday that the situation was OK. They collected (the cards) from 11 camps, with security personnel," Rakhine government communications officer Hla Thein told AFP, adding that he did not know how many cards had been collected.
