Sunday, May 1, 2011

Joint Statement on the International Labor Day vis May Day

For Immediate Release
Date: May 1, 2011

Joint Statement on the International Labor Day vis May Day

May 1 is a historical day for entire human being in the world, which gives perfect spirits to their rights to voluntary work but millions of people are suppressed in their working sectors, denying their willingness.

In the records of the International Labor Organization (ILO) and office of the United Nations High Commission on Human Rights (UNCHR) that the Burmese military regime has been violating the rights of labor through out the massive engagement of forced labor in across the country, particularly in ethnic minorities areas.

Forced labor is used as weapons of degradation, cruelty, exterminations, ethnic cleansing and poverty in Burma’s Arakan State against the ethnic Rohingya Arakanese people which compelled them to leave their ancestral homeland.

These people have taken refuge in various parts of the world, particularly in Bangladesh, Thailand, Malaysia, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Indonesia and etc., while they are being suppressed and marginalized under the development of modern day salvation.

Upon determination of their status as refugee, rights to their livelihoods are denied, prohibiting on their working rights, while the security measure remains before the question. They are subjected to illegal immigrants and thus their rights to wages enjoyment are kept behind the power of racial, regional and state supremacy.

Obviously, none of the countries of Rohingyas refuge ensure the rights to claim their due wages as these states take advantages of sympathy on the de-facto stateless people. Therefore, the Rohingya refugees are passing lives in the hardest proportion with ridiculous justice.

Despite ensuring protection, social justice and equal opportunity, every individual and authority of certain states enforce laws against the vulnerable Rohingya refugees as there is no significant improvement of their situation and advocacy under shades of Islam-phobia.

Muslim worlds are not sincere enough to the plight of Rohingya as they are followers of classical Islamic practitioner in Hanafi Way, which is number 1 among 4 classical Imams. At the same time, almost entire Muslim states are not party to 1951 UN Refugee Convention and 1967 Protocol.

Currently, tens of thousand of Rohingya refugees suffer long hours of work, heavy and dangerous workloads, unpaid wages and inhumane working conditions, often resulting in handicapped and, deaths at work. They also suffer from violence and harassment on a daily basis with no access to administrative or judicial remedy because of the nature of their work as well as their status in country, especially in Malaysia and Saudi Arabia.

Besides, tens of thousands of Rohingya refugee children are being engaged in child laboring, begging and exploitation in various kinds of inhuman behaviors, which bring constant threat to their lives and liberties.

In spite of being persons of concern to the office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), the Rohingya refugees get little access on the basis of their Islamic belief, while some local staffs make benefits by abusing UNHCR power through the engagement of Rohingya refugees in certain companies as commission agents.

By this occasion, we call upon the world leaders, international community:-

To install effective pressure on the Burmese military government in order to halt all kinds of human rights abuses in Burma, particularly to bring an end of forced labor of Rohingya in Arakan State;
To immediately negotiate with the Government of Malaysia, Bangladesh, Saudi Arabia and others to ensure the working rights for the Rohingya refugees until having a congenial time;
To help to co-operate the UN Refugee Agency in making clear sense on the UN Refugee Convention that warrants the livelihoods of the refugees by all means, safeguarding to the lives of refugees and to start up registration and refugee status determination of Rohingya refugees in Saudi Arabia, Pakistan and some other countries of Rohingyas’ refuge.

Signed by:

Arakan Rohingya Organization (JARO), Japan
Burmese Rohingya Association in United Arab Emirates (BRA-UAE)
Burmese Rohingya Democratic Alliance (BRDA)
Ethnic Rohingya Committee of Arakan (ERCA), Malaysia
Myanmar Muslim Council (MMC), Saudi Arabia
National Council for Rohingya (NCR), Malaysia
National Democratic Party for Human Rights (NDPHR) exile, Headquarters, USA
National Democratic Party for Human Rights (NDPHR) exile, SEA Regional Office, Malaysia
Arakan Rohingya Refugee Ulama Council (ARUC)
Rohingya Arakanese Refugee Committee (RARC), Malaysia
Rohingya Youth Development Forum (RYDF), Arakan-Burma
World Rohingya Congress (WRC), USA
Individual Activists, Human Rights Defenders and general refugees; and others


For media contact:
Kyaw Soe Aung Te: +14147364273Mohammad Sadek Tel: +60 163094599

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