Muslim IDPs in Kyaukphyu Twsp displacement camp relocated

By Admin 02 Jun 2023

DMG Newsroom
2 June 2023, Kyaukphyu

Muslim internally displaced people (IDPs) from the Kyauktalone IDP camp in Arakan State’s Kyaukphyu Township were relocated to a new encampment on May 31, according to camp officials.

The junta had said that the Muslim IDPs would be relocated by May 15, but the move was postponed due to Cyclone Mocha.

Muslim IDPs from the Kyauktalone camp were relocated to a new encampment on May 31 at the arrangement of the junta, said U Maw Ni, manager of the displacement camp.

“It is not convenient for us to live at the new location. It’s difficult for us to even ride a motorcycle. When it rains, it gets muddy, so there are things that are not convenient for us,” he added.

The junta arranged to relocate the Muslim IDPs at the Kyauktalone displacement camp to a location near Gonechain Village, about two furlongs from the IDP camp.

Each household will be given a house — reportedly made of wood floor and bamboo walls with corrugated iron roofs, and worth K2.5 million — on land plots measuring 40x30 feet at the new location.

But Muslim IDPs have said that there are tributaries of streams near the new displacement camp, and high tides and waterlogging when it rains, as well as there being few job opportunities for IDPs due to the difficulty of transportation.

“We were forced to relocate to a new location. The new displacement camp is not convenient for us to find jobs. The shelters are decaying and under the shelters, the muddy water is overflowing, making it impassable,” said Daw Ma Phyu, an IDP woman from the Kyauktalone displacement camp.

More than 1,000 people from 363 households in the town of Kyaukphyu’s Ayarshi, Paik The, Taman Chaung and Pyin Phyu Maw wards were displaced to the Kyauktalone IDP camp in the aftermath of the intercommunal violence that wracked Arakan State in 2012.