Myanmar: 112 Rohingya detained for trying to leave country without documents

Authorities in Myanmar have detained dozens of people who are part of the Rohingya Muslim minority this week. A court sentenced the group to several years in prison on charges of attempting to leave the country without official documents.

Myanmar state media outlet Global New Light of Myanmar on Tuesday reported that a group of 112 Rohingya, including 12 children, were arrested by local police. A court in Bogale in the southern region of Ayeyarwady in Myanmar on January 6 sentenced the group to prison time. The group was arrested back in December for trying to leave the country without official documents.

Among the 12 children, five were under 13 years old and were sentenced to two years in prison, and the older children were sentenced to three years in prison. The report said the children were transferred to a “youth training school” on Monday to carry out their prison sentences. The adults in the group were all sentenced to five years in prison.

The predominantly Muslim Rohingya are denied citizenship and other basic rights in predominantly Buddhist Myanmar. Myanmar claims that the Rohingya are “illegal migrants” from South Asia. In 2017, hundreds of thousands of Rohingya Muslims fled the country toward Bangladesh in the midst of a brutal crackdown by the military that is currently the subject of an international genocide trial.

Those that remain in Myanmar are confined to camps with severe restrictions on their movement, making them unable to work, study, or get medical care. Late in December, around 185 Rohingya landed in the northernmost Indonesian province of Aceh after their boat was at sea for weeks.

Myanmar is currently in a crisis after the generals seized power in a coup in February 2021, overthrowing the elected civilian government. The military has since been facing armed resistance groups on several fronts. On Friday last week, the junta held talks with three ethnic armed groups regarding elections in areas being controlled by rebels, according to the spokesman for one of the groups.

The three groups in question, the Shan State Progress Party, the United Wa State Party, and the National Democratic Alliance Army, have largely stayed out of the ongoing unrest and held three days of talks at Naypyidaw.