Muslim exodus continues in Arakan State

By DMG 13 Sep 2022

DMG Newsroom
13 September 2022, Sittwe 

Risking arrest and prosecution with potential imprisonment of up to five years, Muslims in Arakan State continue to attempt to leave Arakan State to work elsewhere in the country or abroad. 

A total of 75 Muslims were detained in August alone as they attempted to leave Arakan State. Thirty-six more have been detained in Gwa Township since early this month. 

Muslims are attempting to leave Arakan State due to travel restrictions, unemployment and rising costs, said a Muslim leader from the Thekkelpyin camp for internally displaced people (IDPs) in Sittwe. 

“Life is difficult even for those who don’t live in a camp. They are still confined to a township, and can’t go beyond. Because there are no jobs and no income, people are leaving here to support their families,” he said. 

Under successive governments, Muslims in Arakan State have been barred from travelling freely, and must seek permission from authorities to travel to other townships even within the state. Many have thus been illegally leaving Arakan State to work in Yangon, other major cities in Myanmar, or foreign countries to seek out better livelihood prospects. 

Typically, it previously cost between K6 million and K8 million for a Muslim to go abroad. But reports indicate that seekers have to pay as much as K10 million to agents these days.  

Muslims are often arrested by authorities as they attempt to leave Arakan State by road or by water, and as such find themselves having forked over a hefty sum of money with nothing to show for it except prosecution before a local court on immigration charges. The alleged Immigration Act violations for which they are detained are punishable by up to five years in prison. 

A Muslim administrator from Maungdaw Township who asked for anonymity called for taking harsh legal action against the brokers who facilitate the movement of such people illegally. 

“It is not good to leave that way. Those who try to leave are arrested, and brokers get the money,” he said. 

Yangon, Thailand and Malaysia are among the major destinations of Muslims in Arakan State, and according to photos released by authorities and local media reports, women and children are often also among the detainees. 

Muslim writer U Aung Khin urged his fellow Muslims in Arakan State to avoid resorting to methods that will only bring harm to them, arguing that the situation of Muslim people in Arakan State has improved when compared with the past. 

“The situation was different before 2019. Then, [Muslims] couldn’t go to Arakanese villages. But now, Muslims from Bu May and Thae Chaung can work or sell things in Mingan,” said U Aung Khing. 

Since an informal ceasefire in late 2020, the Arakan Army has attempted to improve ties between the state’s Muslim and Arakanese communities.  

Relations between the two had been fraught since inter-communal violence plagued Arakan State in 2012. The relationship was further complicated by the Myanmar military’s counter-insurgency operations that followed attacks by the Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army on security outposts in northern Arakan State in 2016 and 2017, which prompted an exodus of more than 700,000 Muslim refugees into Bangladesh.