Myanmar Refugees In malaysia , 2,800 Myanmarese were detained at camps in July

Kyalalumpur, Malaysia –(cripdo) A growing number of immigrants from Myanmar are ending up stuck, often for months, in crowded detention centers in Malaysia designed to hold people for only a few weeks.
Almost 2,800 Myanmarese were detained at camps in July, more than double the 1,200 in January, partly because of a crackdown on human trafficking, a step-up in raids and a slow economy that leaves the migrants without jobs. People from Myanmar, a desperately poor country with a military junta, are now the biggest group among the 7,000 foreigners at detention centers in Malaysia....

At a center near the Kuala Lumpur International Airport, some 120 men sat in neat rows on the floor. Many had their legs drawn to their chests, and all were barefoot. There was not enough space and not enough bedding.
"There is no soap for taking a shower, nothing. They don't give us anything," said Kyaw Zin Lin, 23, who said he fled to avoid being drafted into the Myanmar army. "Every day we eat the food just to survive. ... They treat us like animals."
"It's very difficult to stay here," said Aung Kuh The, a pale 26-year-old. "We have got a lot of problems. Some people, you know, we want to see the doctor but we don't have the chance."
One reason for the rise in detainees is a crackdown on trafficking. A report published in April by the U.S. Senate Committee on Foreign Relations cited firsthand accounts of Myanmarese who said immigration officers turned them over to traffickers.
That practice has all but stopped, Myanmar community leaders in Malaysia say.
Now, though, the Myanmarese are trapped in detention. The Myanmar embassy often takes six months to register its citizens for deportation and charges them 620 ringgit ($180), much more than neighboring Indonesia. By contrast, detainees from other countries are typically deported within a week.
Calls to the Myanmar embassy were repeatedly put on hold and then unanswered.
About half the Myanmarese — those fleeing persecution — may qualify for U.N. refugee status, but that process takes up to four months. The others are economic migrants. Some 140,000 Myanmarese work in Malaysia, but foreign workers who are laid off lose the right to stay.
Some Myanmarese have spent more than six months in crowded, dirty detention centers. One man, whose brother was in detention for four months, said he would rather be sold to traffickers from whom he could buy his freedom.
"I prefer to be trafficked," said the man, who would only be identified by his nickname, Ryan, to protect his relatives in Myanmar. "I don't mind paying 2,000 ringgit ($570)."
Five of Malaysia's 13 detention centers are overcrowded; four of the five have large Myanmarese populations, according to the immigration department. Journalists from The Associated Press accompanied the human rights group Amnesty International on a rare visit recently to three detention centers just south of Kuala Lumpur, the country's biggest city.
At the Lenggeng Detention Depot, 1,400 people are crammed into dormitories meant for 1,200. Of them about 300 are from Myanmar.
Hundreds of men jostle each other for room in the bare dormitories. One sleeps on a stone ledge in a bathroom. Each dormitory is fenced by wire mesh and barbed wire, giving detainees just a few meters (feet) of space for walking.
"The detention centers we saw fell short of international standards in many respects, as the immigration authorities themselves acknowledge," said Michael Bochenek of Amnesty International. "It's a facility of such size that infectious diseases are communicated readily."
Saw Pho Tun, a refugee community leader, said some immigration officers have singled out Myanmarese detainees for rough treatment, beating them and not allowing them medical assistance. Immigration officials deny beating detainees and say everyone has access to medical care.
On July 1, detainees at another center flung their food trays and damaged some of the mesh fence. Immigration officials blamed the riot on frustration about having to stay so long, but detainees say they rioted because they were afraid of abuse.
Most of the blocks have now been shut for repairs, so more than 1,000 detainees — including 700 from Myanmar — were transferred ot other already crowded centers.
Abdul Rahman Othman, the director general of the Immigration Department, said he was taking steps to prevent his officers from being "entangled" in trafficking syndicates. He said officers would be rotated to different posts every three years and have a buddy system to supervise each other.
"Ninety-nine percent of us in immigration are good people," he said, denying the problem is widespread.
Police arrested five officers on trafficking allegations last month. They say their investigations revealed immigration officials took Myanmar immigrants to the Thai border and sold them for up to 600 ringgit ($170) to traffickers. The traffickers then told the migrants to pay 2,000 ringgit ($570) for their freedom, or they would be forced to work in the fishing industry, police said.
Myanmar community leaders said women who failed to pay were sold into prostitution.

SEPANG, Malaysia (cripdo) — A growing number of immigrants from Myanmar are ending up stuck, often for months, in crowded detention centers in Malaysia designed to hold people for only a few weeks.
Almost 2,800 Myanmarese were detained at camps in July, more than double the 1,200 in January, partly because of a crackdown on human trafficking, a step-up in raids and a slow economy that leaves the migrants without jobs. People from Myanmar, a desperately poor country with a military junta, are now the biggest group among the 7,000 foreigners at detention centers in Malaysia.
At a center near the Kuala Lumpur International Airport, some 120 men sat in neat rows on the floor. Many had their legs drawn to their chests, and all were barefoot. There was not enough space and not enough bedding.
"There is no soap for taking a shower, nothing. They don't give us anything," said Kyaw Zin Lin, 23, who said he fled to avoid being drafted into the Myanmar army. "Every day we eat the food just to survive. ... They treat us like animals."
...
"It's very difficult to stay here," said Aung Kuh The, a pale 26-year-old. "We have got a lot of problems. Some people, you know, we want to see the doctor but we don't have the chance."
One reason for the rise in detainees is a crackdown on trafficking. A report published in April by the U.S. Senate Committee on Foreign Relations cited firsthand accounts of Myanmarese who said immigration officers turned them over to traffickers.
That practice has all but stopped, Myanmar community leaders in Malaysia say.
Now, though, the Myanmarese are trapped in detention. The Myanmar embassy often takes six months to register its citizens for deportation and charges them 620 ringgit ($180), much more than neighboring Indonesia. By contrast, detainees from other countries are typically deported within a week.
Calls to the Myanmar embassy were repeatedly put on hold and then unanswered. About half the Myanmarese — those fleeing persecution — may qualify for U.N. refugee status, but that process takes up to four months. The others are economic migrants. Some 140,000 Myanmarese work in Malaysia, but foreign workers who are laid off lose the right to stay.
Some Myanmarese have spent more than six months in crowded, dirty detention centers. One man, whose brother was in detention for four months, said he would rather be sold to traffickers from whom he could buy his freedom.
"I prefer to be trafficked," said the man, who would only be identified by his nickname, Ryan, to protect his relatives in Myanmar. "I don't mind paying 2,000 ringgit ($570)."
Five of Malaysia's 13 detention centers are overcrowded; four of the five have large Myanmarese populations, according to the immigration department. Journalists from The Associated Press accompanied the human rights group Amnesty International on a rare visit recently to three detention centers just south of Kuala Lumpur, the country's biggest city.
At the Lenggeng Detention Depot, 1,400 people are crammed into dormitories meant for 1,200. Of them about 300 are from Myanmar.
Hundreds of men jostle each other for room in the bare dormitories. One sleeps on a stone ledge in a bathroom. Each dormitory is fenced by wire mesh and barbed wire, giving detainees just a few meters (feet) of space for walking.
"The detention centers we saw fell short of international standards in many respects, as the immigration authorities themselves acknowledge," said Michael Bochenek of Amnesty International. "It's a facility of such size that infectious diseases are communicated readily."
Saw Pho Tun, a refugee community leader, said some immigration officers have singled out Myanmarese detainees for rough treatment, beating them and not allowing them medical assistance. Immigration officials deny beating detainees and say everyone has access to medical care.
On July 1, detainees at another center flung their food trays and damaged some of the mesh fence. Immigration officials blamed the riot on frustration about having to stay so long, but detainees say they rioted because they were afraid of abuse.
Most of the blocks have now been shut for repairs, so more than 1,000 detainees — including 700 from Myanmar — were transferred ot other already crowded centers.
Abdul Rahman Othman, the director general of the Immigration Department, said he was taking steps to prevent his officers from being "entangled" in trafficking syndicates. He said officers would be rotated to different posts every three years and have a buddy system to supervise each other.
"Ninety-nine percent of us in immigration are good people," he said, denying the problem is widespread.
Police arrested five officers on trafficking allegations last month. They say their investigations revealed immigration officials took Myanmar immigrants to the Thai border and sold them for up to 600 ringgit ($170) to traffickers. The traffickers then told the migrants to pay 2,000 ringgit ($570) for their freedom, or they would be forced to work in the fishing industry, police said.
Myanmar community leaders said women who failed to pay were sold into prostitution.
Copyright 2009 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

Malaysian Immigrision official accused of human trafficking, plan to sell Rohingya Refugees man

KLIK DiSINI COBA..
KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia - A Malaysian immigration official was charged with selling an illegal immigrant from Myanmar Rohingyas Refugees to human traffickers at the country's border with Thailand, his lawyer said Monday.

Rahman Selamat, a senior immigration official from southern Johor state, pleaded innocent to human trafficking charges, his lawyer Wan Mohamad Fadzil Maamor said.
If found guilty, Rahman faces up to 15 years in prison. The court in northern Kelantan state refused bail for Rahman pending trial on Aug. 25, Wan Mohamad Fadzil said. Further details were not immediately available.Read more: ...

Rahman was arrested July 17 with four other immigration officials and four bus drivers, who allegedly helped transport the migrants to the border.
Police said investigations showed the immigration officers sold an unspecified number of Myanmar migrants detained for living in Malaysia without valid travel documents to human traffickers at the Thai border for up to 600 ringgit ($170) each.
The traffickers then allegedly took the migrants into Thailand and told them to pay 2,000 ringgit ($570) each for their freedom, or they would be forced to work in the fishing industry, police said.
It was unclear if the other Malaysian officials or bus drivers accused of involvement would also be charged. The officials did not specify the ethnicity of the migrants, but most Myanmar people who try to enter Malaysia are ethnic Rohingya Muslims.
In April, a report by the U.S. Senate Committee on Foreign Relations said illegal Myanmar migrants deported from Malaysia were forced to work in brothels, restaurants and on fishing boats in Thailand if they had no money to buy their freedom.
The United Nations refugee agency has registered more than 48,000 refugees in Malaysia, most from Myanmar. But community leaders estimate the number of Myanmar people in Malaysia is about twice that.Read more:

Sen. Jim Webb was also granted an unprecedented meeting with the junta chief, and was allowed to hold talks with Suu Kyi, the first foreign official p

YANGON, Myanmar – Stung by international outrage over the trial of Aung San Suu Kyi, Myanmar's ruling generals agreed Saturday to hand an American prisoner involved in her case to a visiting U.S. senator.

Sen. Jim Webb was also granted an unprecedented meeting with the junta chief, and was allowed to hold talks with Suu Kyi, the first foreign official permitted to see the Nobel laureate since she was sentenced to 18 more months of house arrest on Tuesday.

American John Yettaw, who was sentenced to seven years of hard labor for swimming uninvited to Suu Kyi's lakeside house in Yangon, will be deported on Sunday, Webb said in a statement from his Washington office.

The impending deportation indicates "good relations between the two countries and hope (that) these will grow," Yettaw's lawyer Khin Maoung Oo said. Webb echoed the sentiment.

"It is my hope that we can take advantage of these gestures as a way to begin laying a foundation of goodwill and confidence-building in the future," Webb said in the statement.

...

Suu Kyi has been detained for 14 of the past 20 years, and a global groundswell of international pressure to release the 64-year-old opposition leader has kept the impoverished military-ruled country under sanctions in recent years.

While Washington has traditionally been Myanmar's strongest critic, applying political and economic sanctions against the junta, President Barack Obama's new ambassador for East Asia, Kurt Campbell, recently said the administration is interested in easing its policy of isolation.

The regime has shown no sign it will release Suu Kyi before next year's general elections, which critics say will perpetuate the military's decades-old rule, but Webb's visit appeared to show the junta is sensitive to international censure.

"If the Americans can get the generals to see that their country's interest is reflected in taking interest in reconciliation, releasing Aun Sun Kyi and holding free and fair elections, that would be very helpful," said John Sawyers, Britain's ambassador to the United Nations.

"It's important to have some measure of engagement as well as real pressure on the regime," he told BBC Radio 4.

Michael Hammer, a spokesman for the White House's National Security Council, said officials in Washington had seen reports about Webb's trip and were "keeping up with the developments, including the impending release of American citizen John Yettaw."

Suu Kyi was driven from her residence to a nearby government guest house in Yangon for her 40-minute meeting with Webb. She was later driven back to her rundown, lakeside home.

Webb described his talk with the democracy icon as "an opportunity ... to convey my deep respect to Aung San Suu Kyi for the sacrifices she has made on behalf of democracy around the world."

Earlier Saturday, Webb held talks with junta chief Senior Gen. Than Shwe, the reclusive military council chief who had never met a senior U.S. official.

Webb may have been given the green light for the meetings to mitigate the torrent of international criticism against Myanmar following her trial. In July, authorities barred U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon from meeting with Suu Kyi during a two-day visit.

"I think we have seen the worst of military behavior and that it seems to me that the rulers may have sent some important signals," said Josef Silverstein, a professor emeritus at Rutgers University who has studied Myanmar since the 1950s.

"Having spoken and no one, neither in China nor Russia, have applauded, it seems to be that the soldier-rulers have started to backtrack," he said, referring to Myanmar's two key allies who have also called for Suu Kyi's release through a U.N. Security Council resolution.

Webb arrived in Myanmar's capital, Naypyitaw, on Friday, just days after the world condemned the ruling generals for convicting Suu Kyi of violating the terms of her house arrest by allowing Yettaw to stay at her home for two days.

Activists have complained that the visit — the first by a member of the U.S. Congress in more than a decade — conferred legitimacy on a brutal regime, but the Obama administration gave the Virginia Democrat its blessing.

Webb, a highly decorated Vietnam War veteran, is chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee's East Asia and Pacific Affairs Subcommittee.

In a letter to Webb, dissident groups warned the junta would use the senator's trip for its own ends.

"We are concerned that the military regime will manipulate and exploit your visit and propagandize that you endorse their treatment on Daw Aung San Suu Kyi and over 2,100 political prisoners, their human rights abuses on the people of Burma, and their systematic, widespread and ongoing attack against the ethnic minorities," the letter said. Daw is a term of respect for older women in Myanmar.

Reflecting a similar wariness, a spokesman for Suu Kyi's National League for Democracy said the party "has no interest in Jim Webb because he is not known to have any interest in Myanmar affairs." He did not elaborate.

State TV has heralded Webb's arrival, featuring his meetings with the country's leaders in Saturday's broadcasts.

Yettaw, who is to fly out with Webb on a military aircraft bound for Bangkok on Sunday, was being held at Insein prison, notorious for torture of political prisoners and ordinary criminals. Yettaw's lawyer said his client, who suffers from epileptic seizures and other ailments, had been well treated.

At Suu Kyi's trial, Yettaw of Falcon, Missouri, testified that he swam to Suu Kyi's home to warn her after he had a vision that she would be assassinated. He was convicted of helping Suu Kyi to violate the terms of her house arrest.

Some of Suu Kyi's supporters have referred to the 53-year-old Yettaw as a "fool," but his lawyer, Khin Maoung Oo, described him as "a compassionate, considerate and loving person" who had hoped to save Suu Kyi's life.

"If it's true, of course I'm extremely happy and we're ecstatic," Betty Yettaw told The Associated Press, referring to reports that her husband would be freed. When reached by phone Saturday morning, she said she had yet to receive any official notice.

John Yettaw was handed over to US embassy officials at Yangon's notorious Insein prison after Democrat Senator Jim Webb persuaded the military junta

YANGON, Aug 16, 2009 (cripdo) – A US citizen jailed for swimming to the house of Myanmar democracy icon Aung San Suu Kyi was set to fly out of the army-ruled nation Sunday with a visiting American senator who secured his release.

John Yettaw was handed over to US embassy officials at Yangon's notorious Insein prison after Democrat Senator Jim Webb persuaded the military junta to spare him from a sentence of seven years' hard labour, officials said.

Webb on Saturday became the first senior US official ever to meet reclusive regime chief Than Shwe, capping a landmark visit seen as potentially thawing the tense relations between the two countries.

"He was handed over to US embassy officials. He will stay at the prison and when the time comes he will be brought to the airport and will leave when Jim Webb leaves," a Myanmar official told cripdo. ...
"His sentence has been reduced to three-and-a-half years and then made a suspended sentence. Then he will be deported," the official said on condition of anonymity.

Webb, who has close links to US President Barack Obama, was due to give a press conference at Yangon airport at 1:00 pm (0630 GMT) before flying to Bangkok with Yettaw on a military aircraft, his office said.

The senator also held talks on Saturday with Nobel peace laureate Suu Kyi, who has started another 18-month term of house arrest after being convicted on charges sparked by Yettaw's bizarre stunt.

"I am grateful to the Myanmar government," Webb was quoted as saying in a statement released by his office.

"It is my hope that we can take advantage of these gestures as a way to begin laying a foundation of goodwill and confidence-building in the future," Webb said.

Webb, the chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations subcommittee on East Asia and Pacific affairs, had also urged the military regime to free Suu Kyi, who has spent most of the past two decades under house arrest, his office said.

But his dramatic intercession for Yettaw angered activists who called it a propaganda coup for the junta, with Suu Kyi and her two female aides still in detention while the American goes free.

"This will surely make a negative impression among the people of Burma," said Aung Din, the executive director of the US Campaign for Burma and a former political prisoner who led 1988 protests against the regime.

Yettaw, a diabetic and epileptic former military veteran aged 54, was arrested on May 6 after using a pair of home-made flippers to swim uninvited across a lake from Suu Kyi's crumbling mansion, where he had spent two days.

The devout Mormon said at his trial that he was on a "mission from God" to warn Suu Kyi that he had had a vision in which she was assassinated by terrorists. Her lawyers earlier described him as a "fool."

The Myanmar regime sparked international outrage by extending Suu Kyi's detention, which will keep the 64-year-old locked up during elections promised by the ruling generals in 2010.

The UN Security Council issued a watered-down statement Thursday expressing "serious concern" while the European Union the same day extended sanctions against the junta, including the judges in the trial.

Webb's visit could however herald a possible softening of Washington's hardline stance towards Myanmar, in line with previous statements by the Obama administration about reviewing US policy towards the country.

Obama recently renewed sanctions against the regime but Secretary Hillary Clinton held out the carrot of investment opportunities if the junta frees Suu Kyi.

Webb, a gruff Vietnam veteran, said in April that Washington should seek "constructive" engagement towards Myanmar with the aim of lifting sanctions.

His Myanmar visit has echoes of former US President Bill Clinton's recent trip to North Korea to secure the release of two US journalists serving prison sentences in the country.

Visiting Yangon U.S.Senator meets Suu Kyi, wins American's release

YANGON, Myanmar – Stung by international outrage over the trial of Aung San Suu Kyi, Myanmar's ruling generals agreed Saturday to hand an American prisoner involved in her case to a visiting U.S. senator.

Sen. Jim Webb was also granted an unprecedented meeting with the junta chief, and was allowed to hold talks with Suu Kyi, the first foreign official permitted to see the Nobel laureate since she was sentenced to 18 more months of house arrest on Tuesday.
American John Yettaw, who was sentenced to seven years of hard labor for swimming uninvited to Suu Kyi's lakeside house in Yangon, will be deported on Sunday, Webb said in a statement from his Washington office.

The impending deportation indicates "good relations between the two countries and hope (that) these will grow," Yettaw's lawyer Khin Maoung Oo said. Webb echoed the sentiment ...
"It is my hope that we can take advantage of these gestures as a way to begin laying a foundation of goodwill and confidence-building in the future," Webb said in the statement.

Suu Kyi has been detained for 14 of the past 20 years, and a global groundswell of international pressure to release the 64-year-old opposition leader has kept the impoverished military-ruled country under sanctions in recent years.

While Washington has traditionally been Myanmar's strongest critic, applying political and economic sanctions against the junta, President Barack Obama's new ambassador for East Asia, Kurt Campbell, recently said the administration is interested in easing its policy of isolation. The regime has shown no sign it will release Suu Kyi before next year's general elections, which critics say will perpetuate the military's decades-old rule, but Webb's visit appeared to show the junta is sensitive to international censure.

"If the Americans can get the generals to see that their country's interest is reflected in taking interest in reconciliation, releasing Aun Sun Kyi and holding free and fair elections, that would be very helpful," said John Sawyers, Britain's ambassador to the United Nations.

"It's important to have some measure of engagement as well as real pressure on the regime," he told BBC Radio 4.

Michael Hammer, a spokesman for the White House's National Security Council, said officials in Washington had seen reports about Webb's trip and were "keeping up with the developments, including the impending release of American citizen John Yettaw."

Suu Kyi was driven from her residence to a nearby government guest house in Yangon for her 40-minute meeting with Webb. She was later driven back to her rundown, lakeside home.

Webb described his talk with the democracy icon as "an opportunity ... to convey my deep respect to Aung San Suu Kyi for the sacrifices she has made on behalf of democracy around the world."

Earlier Saturday, Webb held talks with junta chief Senior Gen. Than Shwe, the reclusive military council chief who had never met a senior U.S. official.

Webb may have been given the green light for the meetings to mitigate the torrent of international criticism against Myanmar following her trial. In July, authorities barred U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon from meeting with Suu Kyi during a two-day visit.

"I think we have seen the worst of military behavior and that it seems to me that the rulers may have sent some important signals," said Josef Silverstein, a professor emeritus at Rutgers University who has studied Myanmar since the 1950s.

"Having spoken and no one, neither in China nor Russia, have applauded, it seems to be that the soldier-rulers have started to backtrack," he said, referring to Myanmar's two key allies who have also called for Suu Kyi's release through a U.N. Security Council resolution.

Webb arrived in Myanmar's capital, Naypyitaw, on Friday, just days after the world condemned the ruling generals for convicting Suu Kyi of violating the terms of her house arrest by allowing Yettaw to stay at her home for two days.

Activists have complained that the visit — the first by a member of the U.S. Congress in more than a decade — conferred legitimacy on a brutal regime, but the Obama administration gave the Virginia Democrat its blessing.

Webb, a highly decorated Vietnam War veteran, is chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee's East Asia and Pacific Affairs Subcommittee.

In a letter to Webb, dissident groups warned the junta would use the senator's trip for its own ends.

"We are concerned that the military regime will manipulate and exploit your visit and propagandize that you endorse their treatment on Daw Aung San Suu Kyi and over 2,100 political prisoners, their human rights abuses on the people of Burma, and their systematic, widespread and ongoing attack against the ethnic minorities," the letter said. Daw is a term of respect for older women in Myanmar.

Reflecting a similar wariness, a spokesman for Suu Kyi's National League for Democracy said the party "has no interest in Jim Webb because he is not known to have any interest in Myanmar affairs." He did not elaborate.

State TV has heralded Webb's arrival, featuring his meetings with the country's leaders in Saturday's broadcasts.

Yettaw, who is to fly out with Webb on a military aircraft bound for Bangkok on Sunday, was being held at Insein prison, notorious for torture of political prisoners and ordinary criminals. Yettaw's lawyer said his client, who suffers from epileptic seizures and other ailments, had been well treated.

At Suu Kyi's trial, Yettaw of Falcon, Missouri, testified that he swam to Suu Kyi's home to warn her after he had a vision that she would be assassinated. He was convicted of helping Suu Kyi to violate the terms of her house arrest.

Some of Suu Kyi's supporters have referred to the 53-year-old Yettaw as a "fool," but his lawyer, Khin Maoung Oo, described him as "a compassionate, considerate and loving person" who had hoped to save Suu Kyi's life.

"If it's true, of course I'm extremely happy and we're ecstatic," Betty Yettaw told The Associated Press, referring to reports that her husband would be freed. When reached by phone Saturday morning, she said she had yet to receive any official notice.