Sadness engulfs the Rohingya after being accused of traveling without documents in a Myanmar court
Dozens of Rohingya Muslims, including children, have expressed their grief, over a Myanmar court hearing on charges of traveling without documents.
Dozens of Rohingya Muslims, including children, have expressed their grief, over a Myanmar court hearing on charges of traveling without documents.
On November 28, authorities arrested the Rohingyas on the coast of the Irrawaddy River Delta region as they fled Rakhine State in the west of the country.
The group of 93 people, including 23 children, appeared before a court in the town of Patten in the Delta region to hear testimony from an immigration official who accused them of not possessing the necessary documents for travel.
If the court convicts them, they will face a prison sentence of up to two years.
“They said they fled because the conditions are difficult there,” defense attorney Tazin Myat Win said, referring to Rakhine State, which is home to most of the Rohingya minority in Myanmar.
More than 730,000 Rohingya fled to Bangladesh in 2017 to escape an army-led campaign that UN investigators said was carried out with the “intention of genocide” and included cases of mass murder and rape.
The court holds the next hearing on January 3.
