U.S. Offer to Accept Rohingya Refugees Welcomed But Immediate Action to Saving 1,000’s Drifting At Sea Needed

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

CONTACT: Erik Leaver, eleaver@endgenocide.org, 202-556-2130

U.S. Offer to Accept Rohingya Refugees Welcomed But

Immediate Action to Saving 1,000’s Drifting At Sea Needed

United to End Genocide to Brief Congressional Human Rights Caucus Today

United to End Genocide, a U.S. based human rights advocacy group welcomed the announcement by the United States to accept Rohingya victims who have fled the threat of genocide in Burma. The cooperation offered by the United States reflects the urgent need for all nations to be assisting in this humanitarian emergency.

"People are lost at sea and dying," said former U.S. Congressman Tom Andrews, President of United to End Genocide. "They need to be found and rescued now! There will be few Rohingya to re-settle if they perish at sea."

“The announcement that the United States will take in Rohingya victims is a positive step but with thousands remaining adrift at sea immediate search and rescue operations must be the highest priority for the U.S. and international community,” said Dan Sullivan, Director of Policy for United to End Genocide who recently returned from Malaysia where he met with families of Rohingya who fled Burma by boat.

“Without search and rescue operations, the Andaman Sea will become a mass grave and it will be just bodies reaching Southeast Asian shores. There is no more time for delay. The United States is in a position to coordinate rescue operations and to push Burma’s neighbors to act immediately.

Action by the United States underscores that the treatment of the Rohingya in Burma is both a moral issue and one that needs to be addressed internationally. Once those lost at sea are brought ashore, the root cause of this crisis -- the persecution of the Rohingya Muslim minority in western Burma -- must be directly confronted. Ultimately the trail of doomed ships leads back to Burma."

Today, we call upon the U.S. Congress to join our demands to launch immediate search and rescue operations to save the Rohingya. Working with Parliamentarians around the world, including ASEAN Parliamentarians for Human Rights (APHR), activists and elected officials will succeed in getting nations to act to save lives.”

Dan Sullivan is available for interviews and will be testifying at a briefing by the Tom Lantos Human Rights Commission, “A People Adrift – Mass Graves, Human Trafficking, and Combatting Warning Signs of Genocide in Burma” today, May 21, 2015 at 3pm in 402 Cannon House Office Building. For more information: http://tlhrc.house.gov/hearing_notice.asp?id=1283

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United to End Genocide is an advocacy organization dedicated to preventing and ending genocide and mass atrocities worldwide. For more information visit: endgenocide.org.