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Photo - Phuket Wan
Chutima Sidasathian and Alan Morison 
Phuket Wan
March 6, 2013

PHUKET: Thai security forces opened fire on defenceless Rohingya boatpeople north of Phuket, killing at least two and as many as 15, according to detailed accounts by three survivors and Thai villagers who are sheltering them.

The killings, which are said to have occurred on February 21, came during a botched attempt by the military to transfer about 20 would-be refugees from the large boat on which they arrived from Burma (Myanmar) with 110 others, to a much smaller vessel. 

When some feared they would be separated from family members, they jumped in the water and the military men opened fire during the predawn incident, the witnesses said.

Survivors Habumara, 20, Rerfik, 25, and Jamar, 16, said yesterday that they swam for their lives when the shooting broke out. They are currently being sheltered by sympathetic villagers.

Two fresh graves, said to contain Rohingya, were seen by a Phuketwan reporter and an Australian news television crew yesterday.

The three survivors said they believed that the killers were members of the Thai Navy, but village residents said they probably belonged to another branch of the Thai military. 

Previous abuses of the Muslim Rohingya have been carried out by other arms of the Thai military or operatives trained as paramilitaries.

Vice Admiral Tharathorn Khajitsuwan, the Commander of Thai Navy Three, which patrols the Andaman coast, declined to comment.

One Rohingya, Rerfik, said that their boat, which had run out of fuel on its journey from Burma, was intercepted by local Thai fishermen on February 21.

Rohingya boatpeople were quickly transferred to police trucks yesterday (Photo - Phuket Wan)
Chutima Sidasathian & Alan Morison 
Phuket Wan
January 17, 2013 

PHUKET: A group of 88 Rohingya boatpeople were apprehended and brought to shore north of Phuket yesterday under the gaze of the international media, the BBC and Aljazeera. 

The boatpeople, including eight children and 10 women, will be assessed as Thailand reviews its policy towards hundreds of Rohingya still arriving by sea or recently ''rescued'' from people traffickers' secret camps. 

One pregnant woman and her husband were sent to a small local hospital after the boat was spotted by local villagers off Pra Thong Island, near the large fishing township of Kuraburi in Phang Nga province.

The others in the boat were transferred to Kuraburi Police Station where the BBC, Aljazeera and Phuketwan photographed and interviewed them. 

What emerged was a saga of enduring persecution by the Burmese Army. These people are all neighbors from the village of Debeng, near the town of Sittwe, where so-called ''community violence'' has targetted the oppressed and stateless Muslim minority. 

Burmese soldiers and local police held the Rohingya of Debeng powerless at gunpoint while their Buddhist neighbors torched their homes, the newly-arrived boatpeople said today. 


Children among boatpeople apprehended on Phuket on January 1
(Photo - Phuket Wan)

Chutima Sidasathian & Alan Morison 
Phuket Wan
January 14, 2013 

UPDATE

NINE boats containing about 1000 Rohingya men, women and children are off the coast in the Phuket region now, maritime authorities said on Monday. Two boats that were being ''helped on'' are now being brought to shore, the authorities said. 

Original Report

PHUKET: Two boatloads of would-be Rohingya refugees are being ''helped on'' off the coast north of Phuket today as one senior military officer in the Andaman region called for the Thai government to clarify its policy.

''We are encountering so many boats already this year with woman and children on board,'' he said, preferring not to be named. ''Signs are that they will come in even greater numbers now.''

Another senior officer said that the boats were coming in such vast numbers that the Thai military could no longer accurately tally passenger totals. 

The latest interceptions occurred off the coast from the fishing port of Kuraburi in Phang Nga province today, with the Thai Navy and Marine Police checking the health and welfare of passengers at sea.

''We cannot hope to intercept all the boats,'' the second senior officer said. 

Young Rohingya among those in the first camp raided yesterday
(Photo - Metee Mooktaree)
Alan Morison & Chutima Sidasathian
Phuket Wan
January 11, 2013

PHUKET: Hundreds more captive Rohingya were freed from traffickers in a fresh raid by authorities early today as an international rights organisation called on the Thai government to permit UN access to the rescued people.

Human Rights Watch spokesperson Phil Robertson said: ''We are concerned that Thailand will quickly move to deport these groups without consideration for their rights.''

Unprecedented raids by Thai authorities on two large secret camps close to the border with Malaysia have ''rescued'' about 700 Rohingya, with many women and children among them. 

But the whereabouts of the group freed yesterday from a hillside camp and the second group released in a raid on a warehouse in Songkhla province today are not known. 

After yesterday's raid, the first group of between 367 and 397 were housed at Songkhla Immigration and police stations around the township of Padang Bezar.

Former Asean Secretary General Dr Surin Pitsuwan on Phuket last year
(Photo - Phuket Wan)

Alan Morison & Chutima Sidasathian
Phuket Wan
January 10, 2013

PHUKET: Indonesia is interceding in Burma as the Asean partners desperately try to stem international damage from years of Asean subterfuge and inaction on the Rohingya issue.

Dr Surin Pitsuwan, who has just retired after five years as Secretary General of the 10-nation group, told Phuketwan today that human rights in Burma was an issue that had to be addressed. 

Since the pushbacks from Thailand were exposed in 2009, the word ''Rohingya'' has reverberated around the region.

The covert pushbacks were Thailand's way of dealing with an issue that Burma and its neighbors wanted to hide from the word. 

In 2013, with satellite images being used by activist group Human Rights Watch as evidence of the torching of thousands of Rohingya homes in Burma's Rakhine state, secrets are more difficult to keep. 

Children being treated today inside the people smugglers' camp
(Photo - Metee Mooktaree)
Chutima Sidasathian & Alan Morison
Phuket Wan
January 10, 2013

PHUKET: Thai authorities raided a secret transit camp for Rohingya on the border with Malaysia today, apprehending 366 men, women and children and seven alleged people traffickers. 

Sixty-two of those being held were aged under 15 with three babies less than a year old, and 11 women, local police said. 

The raid is the latest development as thousands of Rohingya flee ethnic cleansing in Burma after being burned from their houses in what's called ''community violence.''

It came as an undercover Rohingya working with the Army bought two boatpeople for 95,000 baht in a ''sting'' in Padangnezar district, in the Thai province of Songkgla.

Children enjoy snacks off Phuket after 13 days at sea in an open boat (Photo - Phuket Wan)
Alan Morison & Chutima Sidasathian
Phuket Wan
January 1, 2013

PHUKET: A boatload of Rohingya - including women and children as young as three - was intercepted off the holiday island of Phuket in Thailand today.

The leader of the group of 74 told Phuketwan through an interpreter: ''Our families put to sea because there is no hope in Burma. If we stay, we will die.''

Previously, only men and boys among the persecuted Muslim minority put to sea. The family homes of thousands of Rohingya have been torched so the women and children now are also making the perilous voyages south in open boats. 

Organisations connected with the Rohingya expect more than 20,000 will put to sea and voyage past Phuket this ''sailing season'' between October and April.

It was disturbing to see young children among the passengers in the exposed open boat today. Hands reached out eagerly for food and cigarettes.

Phuketwan rented a tourist speedboat and was able to interview the group of 74 alongside their boat as Royal Thai Navy ratings replenished their fuel and supplies. 

Under Thailand's ''help on'' policy, the group will be told they cannot land but have been given assistance to reach their preferred destination, Malaysia. 

Mohamad, 45, told us: ''We were heading south with a much larger boat but we ran out of fuel so we had to stop here.''

The larger boat is believed to be the vessel that recently dropped about 500 passengers off the holiday island of Langkawi in Malaysia, with one man dying when struck by a propeller.

Off the southern Phuket holiday island destination of Rawai this morning, we reached the Rohingya boat in about five minutes. 

Rawai is a popular setting off point for tourist visitors who would have been exploring reefs and other island beaches today without realising the epic human drama of the boatpeople was just metres away. 

Of the 74 people crowded into the open boat, said Mohamad, 10 were children under the age of 10. There were three three-year-olds, two boys and a girl. 

Forteen women on board looked to Phuketwan to be mostly young teenagers.

The children keenly chewed on snacks given to them by local Chalong police and some of the men enjoyed cigarettes. 

The hold below the open deck is also packed with people. Mohamad said they had been sailing for 13 days, departing from Maungtaw, in Rakhine state, where so-called ''community violence'' has caused death and destruction since June. 

Mohamad said the fee asked by the people smuggler was 400,000 kyat per person.

Phuketwan has been covering the Rohingya saga since 2008 but this is the first time we've been able to intercept a group at sea. 

Other boatloads have landed on Phuket and along the Andaman coast from time to time. 

Usually they are described as ''Burmese'' - although the Rohingya are denied citizenship in Burma - and trucked straight back to the Thai-Burmese border. 

The children waved to us as the speedboat pulled away to head back to Phuket. 

Once they are ready and fully refuelled, the Rohingya's ''holiday'' off Phuket will be at an end.

Burma denies genocide against the Rohingya, who are hated by virtually all of Burma's Buddhist majority. 

But most observers accept that a tactictly approved policy of ethnic cleansing is now forcing thousands of them to flee their homeland any way they can.
Rohingya arrested in southern Thailand await return to the Burma border
(Photo - 77 Nation Channel)
Chutima Sidasathian & Alan Morison 
Phuket Wan
December 27, 2012 

PHUKET: A total of 127 Rohingya have been arrested in southern Thailand and trucked back to the Thailand-Burma border. 

Those held were in five minivans in a convoy bound for the Malaysian border crossing at Padang Besar in Songkhla province.

On December 24 a police-Army checkpoint in Satun province pulled over two of the vans, which each contained 22 men and boys. 

The drivers of another three minivans fled after dropping off their passengers, who totalled 83. 

The youngest of those arrested was a boy aged 10. Most of the captured Rohingya were teenagers or young men. 

Hundreds are fleeing the Burmese state of Rakhine where thousands of homes have been torched since June in a simmering racial conflict between local residents and the Muslim Rohingya.

About 170 are reported to have been killed in the conflict, which has left thousands of Rohingya confined in displaced persons camps. 

Many prefer to take their chances by paying people smugglers and fleeing by sea, with Malaysia as the target for most.

How the Rohingya arrested on December 24 got to Songkhla province in southern Thailand is not known. Part of their journey was probably made by sea. 

Brokers on the Thai-Malaysia border are known to systematically transfer Rohingya south from camps hidden in plantations in Thailand with the connivance of officials in both countries.

The arrest of the 127 may have come because the officers at the checkpoint are not part of the system or rival brokers have perhaps fallen out. 

The arrests were made by officers from Khuankalong police station in Satun, where Lieutenant Sompong Meechoo said local police were not part of any smuggling group. 

''The Rohingya will be trucked straight back to Ranong,'' he said, referring to the Thai-Burma border port hundreds of kilometres to the north where the arrested men and boys could possibly have stopped off on their journey. 

Because the arrested Rohingya are inevitably all men and boys, some reports speculate that they could be heading to join the insurgency in Thailand's south.

Thailand's Internal Security Operations Command has checked out these reports over several years but never found evidence to justify them.

Isoc tallies 2817 Rohingya arrested or ''helped on'' in Thailand in October and November. 

Other experts in the deep south conflict say there has never been an instance where a single Rohingya has been killed or injured in incriminating circumstances in eight years of conflict. 

Chris Lewa, director of the advocacy group Arakan Project, said: ''Rohingya only transit through Thailand on their way to Malaysia, helped on by Thai authorities. 

''There has never been any evidence of Rohingya involvement in the deep South insurgency. 

''Why should countries in the region repeatedly make these kinds of assumptions just because they are Muslims?''

The Rohingya are protective of their womenfolk, who seldom venture far from home. However, having a boy of 10 among the latest batch of arrests indicates some are becoming more desperate to flee Burma. 

Hundreds of Rohingya are believed to be voyaging past the Andaman coast and the holiday island of Phuket this relatively tranquil October-April ''sailing season.''

Those apprehended on land north of Phuket are usually trucked quickly back to Ranong, often described as Burmese to reduce complications. 

As stateless non-citizens, the Rohingya are not wanted back in Burma so they are usually delivered to people smugglers. 

The smugglers demand extra payments and those who cannot meet the terms are usually put to work in fish factories or indentured to trawlers.

Earlier this month, Singapore refused to allow a Vietnamese cargo ship to dock with 40 Rohingya who survived a sinking in which 200 are thought to have drowned. 

All of Burma's Asean neighbors continue to turn a blind eye to the tacit ethnic cleansing of the Rohingya now underway in Burma. 
Top of the tree in so many ways, Singapore just lacks a heart (Photo - Phuket Wan)

Alan Morison and Chutima Sidasathian
Phuket Wan
December 16, 2012 

News Analysis
PHUKET: Where did Singapore lose its heart? We visited the go-ahead city-state a while back and admired the stunning new developments, the efficiency of its taxis, the cleanliness of its streets. 

Then came this week's sad account of the Vietnamese cargo vessel whose captain took a courageous decision to rescue 40 survivors from a shipwreck. 

A second vessel plucked nine more from the Andaman Sea. Another 210 probably drowned when the ill-fated Nagu sank. 

Both rescue vessels are now reported to be at anchor off Singapore as a UN agency tries to negotiate with Malaysia to take the 49 survivors, who may possibly even be Rohingya, the stateless Muslims from Burma.

Why Malaysia? Why not Singapore? 

Earlier in the week, Singapore, the first-world country where prosperity is evident at every corner, turned away the shipwreck survivors.

According to Singapore's Maritime and Port Authority, it was all the fault of the courageous captain. He should have gone to the nearest port - which would have meant turning around - rather than continuing on to Singapore. 

We can't speak for the captain of the Nosco Victory but perhaps he foolishly thought that Bandgladesh already had enough refugees, and that Singapore might be a better option. 

Little did he know about Singapore's black soul. Prosperous Singapore was the destination for many refugees in the aftermath of the Vietnam war. 

In 1975, Singapore was the first country to stop the boatpeople from coming. Other countries, including Thailand and Malaysia, followed. 

Although 5000 eventually reached Singapore via commercial ships, which picked them up at sea, thousands of others died. 

One reader of an online site publishing details of this fascinating piece of Singapore history wrote: 

''I was in the spore navy at that time and those refugees that were intercepted before they reached our coast were provided with food and water and towed out and left to the mercy of the sea. looking back i think it was a shameful thing to do, the boats were definately not seaworthly and most of them perished at sea, the lucky ones made it to australia. how many died after we pushed them back into the ocean, nobody will ever know. it was like a death sentense with a very slim chance of clemency. could we have been more humane and given these people shelter until a third country decides to take them? how would you have felt if you were one of them being treated as if your life is almost worthless?

''and by the way, some of the boats which were in better condition were seized by the navy and painted in the navy colours and became part of the fleet. what a joke. anyway this sad part of our history, of how we were so cruel to our fellow human beings will never be taught in schools or mentioned in public.''

Indeed. Singapore has progressed in remarkable ways in the 21st century. Its people now rank as among the most prosperous in Asia.

But lost at sea 40 years ago, along with those thousands of Vietnamese boatpeople, was Singapore's heart.
The kind of vessel that the Rohingya use to make their voyages (Photo - Phuket Wan)

Chutima Sidasathian and Alan Morison
Phuket Wan
December 10, 2012

PHUKET: Three boats laden with Rohingya men and boys have been apprehended off the Andaman coast of Thailand today, according to reports.

Two of the boats came ashore at Ko Chang, an island near Thailand's border with Burma that bears the same name as a tourist destination in the Gulf of Thailand. 

The third boat landed at Ko Sinhi, an island 18 kilometres from Ranong, a large Thai border port.

The first boat at Ko Chang landed at 7am with 170 people - an unusually high number - on board.

A second boat landed at 9.40am and the third vessel reached Ko Sinhi at 11am.

It's not known how many people were on board the second and third vessels. 

All three groups were apprehended by the Royal Thai Navy, usually reliable sources have told Phuketwan.

The current whereabouts of the people on the boats in not known. 

Boats have been leaving ports in Bangladesh or Rakhine state in Burma (Myanmar), scene of deadly clashes since June, at the rate of at least one a day since late October. 

Why the boats have landed in Thailand so far north of Malaysia, the usual destination for the Muslim-minority boatpeople, is not known. 

Thailand has been employing a ''help on'' policy, intercepting Rohingya vessels if they come too close to the Thai coast and supplying food and water on condition that the passengers sail on, past Thailand.

Deadly battles between Rohingya and Rakhine locals have killed at least 170 people and razed thousands of homes since a rape and murder lit simmering animosity in May. 

With thousands of Rohingya forced to live in displaced persons camps where conditions are primitive and where children are said to be malnourished, many are trying to flee by water. 

A boatload of 112 men and boys was apprehended when they came ashore at Thai Muang, a short drive north of Phuket, on November 10. 

The passengers included included 56 teenagers - the youngest aged just 14. Another 46 people on board were under 26.

Officials in Thailand described them as ''Burmese'' to stifle any suggestion that as Rohingya, they could be categoriesed as refugees. 

Phuketwan obtained a list of the names of the men and was able to confirm that they were Rohingya. 

All of them were trucked north from Thai Muang the same day, probably to be delivered in Ranong to people smugglers. Because they are stateless non-citizens, Burma does not take them back. 

The increased flow of boats leaving Burma is likely to continue until the ''sailing season'' ends with the arrival of the monsoon in April.
2009 Rohingya boat-people (Photo - Thai Military)
Alan Morison and Chutima Sidasathian
Phuket Wan
December 9, 2012

PHUKET: Rohingya fleeing ethnic cleansing and starvation in Burma are driving a surge in business for people traffickers on the Thai border with Malaysia.

The would-be refugees, who arrive by boat, are imprisoned in primitive conditions until someone pays for their passage across the border into Malaysia.

Recently, the people smugglers' fees have risen to the equivalent of 50,000 baht or even 60,000 baht per person. Brokers have been chasing ''investors'' in a widening circle, even on Phuket or in Bangkok.

If the fee is not met, Rohingya are usually indentured to work on fishing trawlers for up to 12 months to pay off their broker bond the hard way. 

Virtually all authorities on both sides of the Thailand-Malaysia border take a cut from the fee. The broker usually only pockets 10,000 baht per person as profit. 

A rapidly increasing number of Muslim-minority Rohingya are fleeing Rakhine state, where so-called community violence since June has led to at least 170 deaths and the torching of thousands of houses. 

Dispossessed Rohingya are being penned in rough camps, where conditions have shocked United Nations visitors and where many young children are reported to be on the verge of starvation.

At least one boat a day now leaves the region, its passengers consisting of men and teenage boys hoping for sanctuary and a fresh start in Muslim-majority Malaysia. 

The tacitly-sanctioned ethnic cleansing has brought a dramatic increase in the number of departures. But the penning of the Rohinya in tens of thousands in Burma means they have been unable to make even an impoverished living for months. 

So when the telephone call inevitably comes from a trafficker asking for the fee to facilitate the final step of an illegal passage to Malaysia, more families are these days unable to raise the money. 

Hundreds of Rohingya are reported to spend time in captivity in the Thai province of Satun, awaiting the chance to make a crossing to Malaysia once the broker's fee is delivered. 

However, with fewer people able to pay up, more Rohingya are believed to be forced to work on trawlers in conditions that amount to slavery at sea. 

Survivors have told of being kept at work on the Andaman Ocean for as long as 12 months without a break, with supply tenders replenishing food and taking off loads of fish. 

''People who arrive in Satun expecting to have to pay a fee are usually only kept under armed guard for a night or two,'' an informed contact told Phuketwan. 

''They then cross the border, either by boat or simply walking through jungle trails, depending on where they are being kept prisoner. Most of the taffickers operate from plantations.

''Once in Malaysia, the Rohingya will usually be picked up by car and deposited at the door of relatives, whether in Kuala Lumpur or some other place.

''But those who can't raise the entrance money have a problem.''

With increasing numbers taking to boats and with cash short among Rakhine Rohingya, more teenagers and young men are thought to now be forced into slavery at sea. Others become guards or act as agents for the traffickers.

As a result of the boom in supply and the lack of money, brokers have been hastening to clear the bottleneck.

''We have been contacted,'' a Rohingya source on Phuket told Phuketwan last week. ''We don't have any relatives involved.

''But the traffickers are determined to find the money any way they can to make room for the next boatload.''

In the past, non-Rohingya Muslim groups on Phuket have raised money to free young men who otherwise would have been sent to sea.

Although the system is iniquitous, Rohingya and NGOs accept it as better than the alternative: a hopeless future for many in Rakhine state, where the message of race-hate against the despised Rohingya is now openly reinforced by officials at every level. 

All the Asean countries bordering the Andaman Sea along with India are part of a conspiracy to keep their sordid part in the Rohingya tragedy low-key. 

Burma's neighbors no longer openly report the arrival of Rohingya. 

At least seven boatloads are said to have arrived on the Malaysian holiday island of Langkawi in recent weeks, with others likely to have landed north and south of the Thai holiday island of Phuket. 

Those who land far enough south of Phuket are reported to be transported to Satun and delivered to people smugglers. 

Those who are captured north of Phuket are returned to Ranong, a port on the border with Burma, where they too are transferred to traffickers. 

As stateless people without citizenship and unwanted in Burma, the Rohingya are seldom transported back to Rakhine. 

Most often, those apprehended in Thailand north of Phuket are recorded as ''Burmese'' to prevent alarming NGOs or the media. 

The surge of Rohingya in the border bottleneck is expected to grow between now and April when the monsoon season makes the perilous voyage - which can be deadly at any time - too dangerous even for desperate people.
A school for Rohingya kids without a building in Myanmar (Photo - IHH Turkey)
Phuket Wan
November 29, 2012

PHUKET: An alarming report from Dan Rivers of CNN this week said in summary: ''We have come to Rahkine state in Burma (Myanmar) to report on the latest threat to the Rohingya. What we have found is shocking. 

''I was expecting the displaced persons camps to be grim - but I wasn't prepared to see children starving to death. This isn't journalistic hyperbole. Thousands of kids are starving to death.''

Concerns about children dying in camps come as ethnic cleansing in Burma forces teenage boys and men to take to the sea in barely seaworth vessels to sail past Phuket seeking sanctuary.

The nightmare of malnutrition, deaths at sea and possibly genocide is taking place on what, in a small world, can be categorised as Phuket's doorstep. 

NOW this media release comes from UNICEF:

UNICEF scales-up response, calls for stronger combat against child malnutrition in Rakhine State


Rakhine State - While precise information about nutrition levels in Rakhine State is still difficult to obtain, UNICEF is very concerned about the extent and severity of child malnutrition, which has been exacerbated by the ongoing conflict.

Child nutrition levels were not good prior to the outbreak of the Rakhine conflict in June, and subsequent population displacement and the security situation has hampered access to affected children.

UNICEF is scaling up its ongoing efforts to reach children across ethnic lines in need with life-saving nutrition interventions.

''We are working with the government and other partners for unabated access and for additional funding to address the key issue of child malnutrition in the Rakhine state to reverse the risk faced by the children affected by conflict,'' said UNICEF Representative Bertrand Bainvel.

On November 20, the UN Humanitarian Coordinator in Burma has launched an additional US$41 million Revised Response Plan for Rakhine. The Revised Plan will support urgent humanitarian aid to 115,000 internally displaced persons, living in camps with little or no access to basic services, up till June 2013.

A joint rapid nutrition assessment, carried out in Sittwe in early July indicated a 23.4 percent prevalence of Global and 7.5 percent of Severe Acute Malnutrition in the locations where displaced people are congregated. 

Findings indicated that some 2000 acutely malnourished children were facing a high risk of mortality, with 650 of these children in a severe condition and in urgent need of therapeutic feeding, and an additional nearly 9000 children in need of micronutrient supplements. 

A further 2500 children were likely to develop acute malnutrition if adequate food, healthcare and water and sanitation was not provided.

UNICEF has been working with the Government and partners to examine the nutritional status of children in Sittwe, both to confirm the initial estimates of the severity of the situation and to ensure that those in need receive help as a matter of priority. 

In late October, of 4066 children examined using the Middle and Upper Arm Circumference (MUAC) measurement screening method, 413 were found to be severely acute malnourished and 649 moderately malnourished. 

All these children were treated but they require ongoing nutritional support and UNICEF expects there are more children in similar situations that have not yet been identified and reached.

In response to the situation, UNICEF, through the State Health Department, provided Ready-to-Use Therapeutic Food and supplementary food for 6-59 months old children along with micronutrient supplements and continued to promote young child feeding practices including breastfeeding and complementary feeding.

At the point when the second outbreak of unrest broke out in Rakhine in October, expert estimates suggested around 2900 acutely malnourished children were at high risk of mortality; 930 of these children were in severe condition that required therapeutic feeding and some 2000 children were suffering from Moderate Acute Malnutrition and in need of supplementary feeding. 

A further 12,000 children aged 6-59 months old and some 5,400 pregnant and lactating women were in need of micronutrient supplementation. Some challenges in terms of access still exist, with 29 percent of IDP population still unreachable by partners as of October.

More resources are urgently needed to continue and strengthen the nutrition response including for assessments, case identification, referral, monitoring and surveillance. 

Therapeutic feeding must be provided urgently to save the lives of 930 severely acute malnourished children identified thus far and urgent supplementary feeding is needed for the 2000 moderately malnourished children is essential to stop them from falling into severe acute malnutrition. 

Micronutrient supplement must be provided to a further 5400 pregnant and lactating women and 12,400 under-five children to avoid serious malnutrition deficiency and the risk of consequent mortality.

The various organisations working to provide nutrition aid estimate that to respond to the need of a total of 115,000 IDPs for one year, total funding of some US$1.28 million is required . With around $400,000 already secured by partners, the immediate nutrition funding gap is $880,000.

Over the past decades UNICEF adopted a community-based nutrition intervention approach to address persistent child malnutrition in Rakhine, the second poorest state in Myanmar, in the host communities as well as in the displaced population. 

The already vulnerable situation was exacerbated by ethnic conflict that started in June this year.

UNICEF is committed to supporting the health, education, protection rights and prospects of all children in Rakhine State and across Myanmar, based on its humanitarian principles of neutrality and impartiality.

About UNICEF


UNICEF works in 190 countries and territories to help children survive and thrive, from early childhood through adolescence. The world's largest provider of vaccines for developing countries, UNICEF supports child health and nutrition, good water and sanitation, quality basic education for all boys and girls, and the protection of children from violence, exploitation, and AIDS. UNICEF is funded entirely by the voluntary contributions of individuals, businesses, foundations and governments. 

For more information about UNICEF and its work visit: www.unicef.org

    • Rohingya Exodus