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Unexpected Rohingya history in Saudi Arabia
by Rohingya Human Rights
2010-10-09 08:48:23 |
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Since the Rohingyas have started in fluxing into neighboring country and further proceeding westward dimension. As the situation has been changing from bad to worse Rohingyas are being compelled to migrate from their motherland. Thus first batch of Rohingya arrived KSA in 1948 on foot through Yemen and Jordan.
Presently there are approximately 500000 (0.5 million) Rohingyas residing in the kingdom of Saudi Arabia mostly in Makkah, Jeddah and Madina in sub human conditions A study conducted in 2007 by the Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques Institute of Hajj Research in Mecca showed that 74 per cent of Saudi’s Rohingya would refuse to return to Myanmar under any circumstances, 12 per cent declined to answer and 14 per cent said they would go back only under very specific conditions. Those conditions include the right to full citizenship, the right to practice Islam publicly and the return of their properties that were confiscated by the military regimes since1960s.Last year the governor of the Mecca region, Prince Khalid Al Faisal, announced that King Abdullah had approved a plan to grant legal-resident status to immigrants in Mecca region, where 98 per cent of Burmese in the kingdom live.
Prince Faisal did not name a particular ethnic group in his announcement, but he said the government would grant resident status to “those who fled to protect their religion and the Kingdom accepted them because of religious oppression in their homeland”. No further news has been issued on the plan and Maj Gen Mansour Al Turki, the interior ministry spokesman, declined to comment on its latest developments
Most of the Rohingyas in KSA are without any legal status but who however have legality of residence permits now facing various types of problems as most of those are holders of passports of Pakistan and Bangladesh. It is owe over owe for Rohingyas as Pakistan and Bangladesh embassies respectively declining to renew their passports as non citizens of their countries are not allowed to possess or seizing even cancellation of passports have been happened. Somehow if possible to renew or getting in order only through channels of paying a huge amount of bribe which is quite impossible to every holders of passports ironically a few can afford it. Education is the back bone of a nation but Rohingyas are deprived of the right to education.
Rohingya children are not allowed to get admission in public schools of KSA though resident permits holder with passport are of Pakistan and Bangladesh are not allowed but if allowed only up to secondary level. After that all are dropped from education and thus the children being in frustration not availing themselves of getting opportunities of higher education get involved in illogical l and anti social activities or habits. On other hand , those who has completed secondary stage of education finding no way or hope of job chances or higher study get involves in unethical actions as frustration is preoccupied their brains. Thus the young generation of Rohingyas in KSA whom would have to lead the nation but ironically they are on ways to be bound doomed in the long run.
Another tragedic window is marrying young Rohingya girls by physically unfit and mentally weak Saudis including aged and sicks. As families agree to escape the complication of residence permits (Iqama) though they are kept in shabby condition in periphery society. Sometimes the marriage abandoned by Saudi husband then the widows have to become illegal in accordance law or suffer economical hardship, untimely death time and again occurs due to minor of age during delivery .Thus the total situation of Rohingyas in KSA is bleak glooming which is being respected as the citadel of Islam by Ummah. As Mr.Kithy MC Kinsey spokesman of UNHCR for Asia rightly said, ‘Rohingyas have no real friend in the world and no country has taken up the issue. So they are everywhere in the shabby situation with periphery statuses’.
Another problem Rohinyas have been suffering from is not renewing of residence permits of family which has boys or girls of over Eighteen years old and the authority introduces new laws of deportation of boys or girls of over 18 years of age. Where they should to be deported is not clear as Bangladesh and Pakistan are reluctant t to give them shelter though they are holding passports of those countries. Thus Rohingya families due to passport issue reaching the edge of losing legal status and an estimated 5000 are languishing in KSA prisons or deportation centers with any prosecution or trial for over 3 years. Most of them are in inhuman situation and suffering from types of diseases, shortage of food and in non hygienic and squalid environment.
Rohingya issue is going to be complicated and severe so preemptive steps must be adopted to measure the core of its problem and searched to solve it permanently.
The kingdom has been rendering a worthy humanitarian assistance to the people of Arakan by giving them shelter and permits to reside but for its durable solution all Rohingyas in KSA must be enlisted and kept in certain area or camps. Hence Burmese Government must be pressurized to repeal the infamous 1982 citizenship law which violates several international customary universal laws and repatriation of all Rohingyas in abroad must be emphasized including in KSA and racism and xenophobia which have been exploited by the military to prolong their illegal rule must be shunned.
To comprehend the real facts and factors of Rohingya issue a cell or an office must be established by the concerned authority of KSA comprising Rohingya experts or representatives of Rohingyas and more ever the following steps must be taken for the Rohingyas living in KSA and for a durable solution of the longstanding problem.
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Mohamed Ibrahim
Chairman
BROG (Burmese Rohingya Organization Germany)
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