Railway track squatters in Sittwe given five days to vacate

By DMG 25 Feb 2022

DMG Newsroom
25 February 2022, Sittwe

Some people who are living on lands owned by Myanma Railways in Sittwe Township, Arakan State, have been instructed to vacate the area within five days. 

People living near Sittwe Railway Station and on land between the station and Sittwe University were given letters on February 24, ordering them to leave within five days, according to people who are living in the area. 

“Three police and members of the ward administration department came and gave the notification. We have been living here for nearly three years. When we are told to vacate so quickly, we do not know where we should go,” Ma Than Nu, a person living in the area, told DMG. 

Some of the affected people are asserting claims of land ownership, as some plots along the railway track have been sold successively, and without a legal basis, among squatters. 

Daw Hla Yin Sein, a retired civil servant, said: “ I paid K50,000 of rent a month previously. I later bought the land by pawning my pension book, so I could have accommodation for my last days. Now, I do not know what I should do as we are told to leave this place.” 

The notification warns that those who do not leave within five days will be forcibly evicted. 

People who have been told to move from the area said the edict is not fair because not everyone living along the railway track is being ordered to leave. 

There are more than 100 households affected by the clearance order, and most of them are migrant workers employed in the Arakan State capital Sittwe. 

The Arakan state regime council is preparing to resume train service along the Pyitawthar-Yaychanpyin rail route, and squatters living near the railway track will be removed, Police Colonel Thet Lwin, state minister for transportation, told DMG this week.