Shady ‘charities’ sully IDP fundraising efforts in Sittwe

By Min Tun 08 Feb 2020

Min Tun | DMG
8 February, Sittwe

Growing humanitarian aid need in Arakan State has led to the emergence of fly-by-night “charity” groups and other fraudulent donation-seeking schemes in the state capital Sittwe.

With outfits of dubious or merely unknown repute now soliciting donations daily, the efforts of legitimate charities have also faced suspicion, said Daw Saw Tin Yee, chair of the Rekha Taw Win Charity group.

“We don’t know if they applied for a permit to collect donations in the city,” she said of some of the more questionable solicitors now looking to tap into people’s generosity. “We have to wait five days at least and sometimes it takes one month to get permission. Some people have asked us if we are really working for IDPs [internally displaced people].”

It was those groups soliciting contributions almost every day, with members who were shabbily attired, that had raised the suspicions of Sittwe resident U Maung Thar Sein.

“They did not say whether they were given permission from the government to provide aid, nor for what IDP camp. Since we are being asked for donations every day, we are upset,” he said.

Some official charity groups have suspended their activities due to growing concern about groups suspected of trying to dupe those inclined to donate.

The Arakan State government last April ordered that charity groups collect donations in the state only after applying for permits from the government.

Bona fide civil society organisations that are fundraising for IDPs said they had to apply to the township- and district-level General Administration Departments in order to collect donations in Sittwe.

Local charitable operations have taken on a larger role in Arakan State following a decision by the state government in January 2019 to bar international aid groups from conflict-affected parts of the state, with the exception of the World Food Programme and the International Committee of the Red Cross.   

Estimates put the number of IDPs in Arakan State at more than 100,000, with the number rising markedly since sustained conflict between the Tatmadaw and the Arakan Army kicked off in December 2018.