Mizzima Editorial

The figures are sketchy but according to a local media report several dozen Muslim Rohingya women are caught up in a Catch-22 situation in Pathein Prison. Their circumstances provide a window on the dire circumstances for many Rohingya in a country that does not recognize them as citizens.

The Arakan Express News recently reported that a large number of Rohingya women imprisoned under immigration laws in Pathein Prison in Pathein Township, Irrawaddy Region, were granted amnesty on 1 August 2023 under the state amnesty announced by the coup Military Council on that date. However, the Prison Department did not release them because they did not have any identification cards, so they continued to keep them locked up despite the amnesty. The authorities say the women will only be released when officials from the relevant township come to call them, sources close to the women told the news service. 

This is a crisis two years in the making. The Rohingya women were among 100 men, women and children who were arrested two years ago in Labutta Township, Ayeyarwady Division, and taken to Pathein Prison two weeks later. Woe be the fate of Rohingya who leave Rakhine and seek work elsewhere. In this case, Rohingya children were reportedly separated from their parents and sent to Insein Youth detention center. Some of the Rohingya people who were arrested in early August this year were released under the amnesty, but they too are being kept in Pathein Prison because they have no place to live.

As the report says, the relevant immigration officials have not yet come to call. The women are having
trouble living and their family members are also worried. The family members have appealed to the authorities to bring the women home as soon as possible and allow them to reunite with their families.

"I heard they were released on amnesty. But they still can't go home. I heard that they would
release them only if the immigration officials from this side came to call them,” a family member said.

“Immigration on this side has not been called yet, so they are in trouble over there. In prison, there is only one piece of clothing, so the women have to live with that piece of clothing, even if their health is not good. Family members are also very worried," said a person close to the family of a woman who was granted amnesty but who remains stranded in Pathein.

The news service claims they could not get a response from the International Committee of the Red Cross regarding the matter. Suffice to say, they are stuck in limbo.

This sad tale reflects the difficult situation for Rohingya in Myanmar and ought to ring alarm bells for those eager to see the Rohingya go home – whether from the refugee camps in Bangladesh or the IDP camps in Rakhine. The Myanmar junta remains deaf to the call for citizenship for the Rohingya minority.

Until this issue of citizenship is resolved, Rohingya will get caught in a no-mans land if they try to extricate themselves from the “prison” the authorities seek to lock them up in – whether a real prison or the camps. 

The Rohingya women locked in Pathein Prison highlight the unjust policy for Rohingya people pursued by the Myanmar junta.