Dozens of Muslims from Arakan State arrested in Yangon Region

By DMG 09 Feb 2022

DMG Newsroom
9 February 2022, Yangon

Nearly 50 Muslims, most of them women believed to be from Arakan State, were arrested on February 8 by police in Yangon Region’s Kyauktan Township, witnesses said.

Thirty-seven women and nine men were arrested under a bridge in Kyauktan Township, according to a witness who did not want to reveal their identity.

“Most of them are from Buthidaung and Maungdaw towns [in Arakan State]. All of them are young people. Some are children,” the witness said. “They come to Yangon to work in Thailand and Malaysia. They came with brokers, but the brokers were not arrested.”

The group are being detained at a Covid-19 treatment centre in Kyauktan town, where immigration officers are reportedly questioning them.

DMG phoned the Kyauktan Township police station concerning the mass arrest, but the officer on duty said he had no authority to give comment, and that the police station does not field media enquiries.

U Khaing Kaung San, director of the Wan Lark Regional Development Foundation, said such arrests have taken place frequently under successive governments.

“The government allowed them to travel in Arakan State, but they were arrested in other townships outside Arakan State. It should not happen,” he said. “Their freedom of movement should be given consideration. They will keep travelling outside the state because there are no job opportunities for them in the state.”

Many people in Arakan State go abroad in search of work due to job scarcity in the state.