Rohingya refugees protest in Surat Thani over holiday denial

Rohingya refugees protest in Surat Thani over holiday denial

Officials refused to allow celebration of holy day

An official shows plastic bags containing small stones found in the sleeping quarter. (Photo by Supapong Chaolan)
An official shows plastic bags containing small stones found in the sleeping quarter. (Photo by Supapong Chaolan)

Rohingya Muslim refugees being held at a detention centre in Surat Thani province cut power and broke windows in a protest over not being allowed to celebrate an important Islamic holiday.

The 94 women and children late Monday tried to break open doors and shattered windows in their dormitory at the holding centre in tambon Khun Thale in Muang district, officials confirmed Tuesday.

The Myanmar migrants were protesting against officials who had refused to allow food into the dorm to celebrate the Laylat al Baraat holiday, according to a Surat Thani police spokesman.

Laylat al Baraat, or Barat Night, is one of the holiest nights in the Islamic year. It is considered a night of forgiveness and repentance.

Officials said the refugees also were protesting being resettled in the United States and not Malaysia, which they preferred.

Rohingya women cut the power supply and tried to break open the doors and windows of the sleeping quarters. (Photo by Supapong Chaolan)

The detention facility is located at a southern regional occupation-training centre, the Sri Surat Home, run by the Ministry of Social Development and Human Resources.

The police spokesman told the German Press Agency officials were enforcing the facility's rules.

After being informed of the incident, Surat Thani deputy governor Wichawut Jinto and provincial police chief Maj Gen Apichart Boonsriroj went to the centre with 50 police officers.

It took the police more than two hours to end the protest.  Five Rohingya protest leaders were taken for questioning.

More than 80 Surat Thani anti-riot officers and provincial officials then searched the refugees' sleeping quarters and found small stones in several plastic bags, which they suspected would be used to break the windows or throw at guards. A large amount of food also was found.

Barbed wire was placed around the building and more lighting installed in the area. Thirty officials were put on duty to prevent the Rohingya from escaping.

Of the 94 Rohingya women and children confined in the holding centre, 35 are categorised as human-trafficking victims and the rest illegal immigrants. They had tried to escape from the centre several times previously.

The Rohingya are at the centre of an international humanitarian crisis. In May, authorities found a mass grave containing the remains of Rohingya refugees from Myanmar.

The ensuing outcry led the government to crack down on human trafficking networks, stranding thousands of migrants with little food or water off the coasts of Thailand, Malaysia and Indonesia.

The Rohingya say they suffer discrimination in Myanmar, which does not recognise them as one of the country's official ethnic groups, and considers them illegal Bengali immigrants.

Food, prohibited to be kept in the sleeping quarter, is also found.

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