Letter to Senator Sarah Hanson-Young

Dr U Ne Oo
E: uneooadelaide[AT]gmail.com

Dated: 18th May 2015
Senator Sarah Hanson-Young
Greens Senator for South Australia
239 Wright Street
Adelaide SA 5000
Facsimile: (08) 8212 - 4822

re: Burma-Rohingya and Bangladeshi migrants Adrift at Sea

Dear Senator Sarah Hanson-Young,

I am U Ne Oo, an Burmese exile and human rights activist, who many years living in Adelaide but now in Sydney. You might remember me from Refugee Action Collective campaigns in Adelaide, which I have been a supporter for the cause. Since those days, your rise to parliament as a Green senator has been worthy; and I observed with much satisfaction with regards to your genuine commitment towards justice for Refugees.

As a Burmese exile, I had been engaging in campaigns, especially for the rights of Burma-Rohingya refugees, since 1992. As a grassroot organisation in Adelaide, I had also made a submission to Australian Senate in 2002 about Australian government's border protection measures. I always feel disturbed about Liberal Government's refugee policy, so to speak (www.netipr.org/saorg/).

I am writing to thank you regarding with your effort on recent Burma-Rohingya and Bangladesh migrants who are adrift at sea. Whilst it is apparent that no country wants any boatload of migrant or refugees, the international community must act with urgency in this case. Adrift at sea, these trafficking victims are getting sick and dying more by the hours. There had to be a regionally coordinated effort to round-up those refugee/migrant boats. But, unless the question of "what-to-do"? with those trafficking victims being properly addressed, no country would lift their feet to do the search at sea.

I therefore call upon the Greens to pressure Australian Government to take an urgent rescue action with regards to these trafficking victims. Tony Abbott's government has to understand that Australia cannot be immune from the human rights ills of Asia and that a regionally coordinated response is the only answer. I summarised the situation in the followings:

1. That the current boat people consists the possible mix of genuine refugees (Rohingya, the residents of Myanmar) and economic migrants ( citizens of Bangladesh);

2. The IOM and UNHCR must first set up a processing centre for these trafficking victims. An interim camp site should be established, for a specified period, with a participating country, to disembark these trafficking victims. The IOM/UNHCR should pay for that camp site and the host country will not be responsible for further resettlement or repatriation of these trafficking victims;

3. Once an agreement is reached for establishing such interim camp site, the governments in the region, including Australia, should commence search and rescue effort for those trafficking victims.

4. The governments of Burma and Bangladesh must not turn a blind eyes to the trafficking and those traffickers. Those responsible for trafficking must be held to account. The international community must also press the Burmese government to expedite resolving citizenship status of Rohingya/Bengali. Further, the Burmese government must make every effort to resettled back those internally displaced Rohingya/Bengali villagers now living in concentrated camps in Arakan State. Those trafficking victims, who proven to be legitimate residents of Burma, must be granted amnesty and taken back by the Burmese government.

One important point, in order to avoid unnecessary complications, if you ever happen to come across in addressing this issue with the officialdom of Burmese government, the name 'Rohingya' is not recognized by the Burmese government. Whilst media and UN continues to address 'Rohingya' in some informal ways, Burmese Government insists that the 'Rohingya' name doesn't exists historically and being address this community group with the generic name 'Bengali'. Insofar as I could find in historical records, the Burmese Government appears to be correct on that point.

Finally, thank you for your continue efforts regarding with these Burma-Rohingya and Bangladeshi migrant and refugees. For any matter regarding this, please feel free to contact me in Sydney.

With best regards,
(U Ne Oo)

Copy : -

1. H. E. Ban Ki-Moon, Office of the Secretary-General, 885 Second Avenue, United Nations Headquarters, New York, NY 10017, Facsimile: +1-212-963-4879

2. Professor Yanghee Lee, Special Rapporteur for Human Rights in Myanmar.