BANGLADESH — Thousands of Rohingya refugees are fleeing what’s being described by the UN as ethnic cleansing in Myanmar. In response to their desperate needs OM Bangladesh is restoring hope to these many marginalized refugees by providing safe playing areas for children, education, stress debriefings for mothers, sanitation training and hygiene packs. The United Nations…
WASHINGTON, DC – The United States Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF) calls on the governments of Thailand and Malaysia to admit boats carrying Rohingya Muslim refugees stranded at sea. “Thai and Malaysian authorities must recognize their obligations under international law to refugees fleeing ethnic and religious violence,” USCIRF Chair Gayle Manchin stated. “USCIRF urges…
GENEVA – Nearly a million Rohingya are interred at refugee camps in Bangladesh, having fled their homes to escape persecution in their native Myanmar. Tensions have been rising over the past several months and have reached a point where remaining in Bangladesh may become as dangerous as of being back in Myanmar. The UN Office…
The Rohingya who escaped to Bangladesh to flee violence from the military are being deported and sent back to Myanmar in the next two years. According to BBC, “Myanmar has agreed to accept 1,500 Rohingya each week, Bangladesh says, adding that it aims to return all of them to Myanmar within two years.” The United…
The United States Secretary of State Rex Tillerson met with Aung San Suu Kyi, the current leader of Myanmar, on Nov. 15 to discuss the plight of the Rohingya, a people group of Myanmar that has been persecuted by the military for being illegal aliens. There are currently more than 600,000 Rohingyas that have fled…
The United Nations is doing an investigation to see whether the treatment of the Rohingya amounts to human rights violations. Per CNN, “Tens of thousands of members of Myanmar’s Muslim minority have left in this fashion, and their treatment may amount to ‘crimes against humanity,’ warns UN Special Rapporteur Yanghee Lee.” About 70,000 people have…
Photo by Firdaus Latif Pope Francis traveled to visit the Rohingya in Myanmar to see the conditions they live in. There he prayed for them and condemned the violence against them. Per CNN, “Pope Francis prayed for Rohingya refugees during a general audience on Wednesday, decrying violence against them ‘simply because they uphold their Muslim…
Photo by Firdaus Latif The children of the Rohingya are disappearing off the street. The Rohingya are one of the most oppressed people, who have no homeland. Voice of America reports, “A spate of disappearances among the children of displaced Rohingya in Bangladesh is raising fears the children have been abducted into the region’s human…
Photo by Samoano One child named Rosmaida Bibi was born in a Rohingya refugee camp. She is malnourished and hasn’t grown like most children her age do. Per Fox News, “Ever since she was born in this squalid camp for displaced members of Myanmar’s ethnic Rohingya minority, Rosmaida Bibi has struggled to do something most…
The Rohingya of Myanmar is one of the most persecuted group in the world. They have no home. Per Fox News, “Some 300,000 Rohingya Muslims have lived in Bangladesh for decades after fleeing there from neighboring Myanmar in the face of persecution by its military and majority Buddhists.” Many of the Rohingya are forced into…
By English: Foreign and Commonwealth Office The Rohingya are treated badly by the government of Myanmar, mainly the military. Many Rohingya have escaped into Muslim countries. According to CNN, “The Myanmar government has forcibly segregated Rohingya from the rest of the population in Rakhine state since 1982 when the government stripped them of their citizenship.”…
NEW YORK — Concern Worldwide provides critical humanitarian support as the world’s displacement crisis reaches an all-time high, with 1 in every 78 people on earth forced to flee their homes and 32.5 million refugees – that is, people who have fled the country – globally. In Chad, Concern is responding to the immediate needs…
WASHINGTON — On June 28-30 religious freedom leaders, advocates and activists from around the world, spanning a wide range of faith traditions and political affiliations, will gather in Washington, D.C., for the second annual International Religious Freedom Summit. The Summit will highlight increasing threats to freedom of religion, conscience and belief, and it will once…
NEW YORK — June 20 is observed annually as World Refugee Day. The United Nations defines a refugee as “someone who fled his or her home and country owing to “well-founded fear of persecution because of his/her race, religion, nationality, membership in a particular social group, or political opinion.” While that definition seems to be…
WILLS POINT, TX – A national pastor in Myanmar supported by Gospel for Asia (GFA World and affiliates like Gospel for Asia Canada) was forcibly removed at gunpoint from his home by five men on January 19, 2019. The men are believed to have been members of a rebel army that has been seeking control…
WILLS POINT, TX – Gospel for Asia (GFA) issues an extensive Special Report on the deadly diseases brought by the mosquito and the storied impact of faith-based organizations on world health, fighting for the Kingdom to “come on earth as it is in heaven.” It takes only one mosquito, buzzing around with ill intent, dive-bombing…
NEW YORK – The UNHCR estimates that there are about 12 million stateless people in the world today. The number is somewhat of a wild guess. Although some are in refugee camps or detention centers, there is no method currently available or in use to determine who else is stateless or where they are. Stateless…
YANGON – Reuters journalists, Wa Lone (33) and Kyaw So Oo (29) were detained in Myanmar in December 2017. They were charged and eventually convicted of violating the country’s Official Secrets Act. They were sentenced to seven years in prison. Today, the two men are free after spending more than 500 days in custody. They…
The U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom has released its annual report in the aftermath of attacks on mosques in New Zealand, churches in Sri Lanka and synagogues in the United States. “It’s coming at a time when religious freedom concerns, for lots of reasons, are getting more attention across the board,” USCIRF Commissioner Johnnie…
YANGON – Myanmar, formerly Burma, may best be described a line from Rogers and Hammerstein’s “The King and I” in which the king exclaims, “It’s a puzzlement.” In a recent article, we related the story of a Christian pastor in a small village in the Chin state in northwest Myanmar. The gist of the story…
DHAKA – Imagine it is a rainy Sunday morning. You wake up, you consider the downpour, and you decide that the weather is too bad for anyone to go to church. And you are the pastor! Now imagine that you live in a country like Bangladesh and that it is the monsoon system, which it…
YANGON – Life goes on as normal for Christians and Muslims in Myanmar, just as life goes on as normal for Christians and Muslims in America. Normal is the operative word because what is normal for them is at the extreme opposite of what normal is for us. We often refer to normal as “the…
Photo by Ziaul Hoque Cyclone Mora hit the coast of Bangladesh on May 30, displacing hundreds of thousands of people. Per AccuWeather, “More than 500,000 people have been displaced by the former Cyclone Mora which brought heavy rain and damaging winds to western Myanmar and Bangladesh on Monday and Tuesday.” After landfall, at least six…
The Myanmar military is cracking down on Myanmar’s minorities, particularly the Rohingya. Many of them flee into Bangladesh. CNN reports, “Authorities in neighboring Bangladesh said dozens of people have attempted to flee across the border in recent days.” Those in Myanmar think that the Rohingya are Bangladesh citizens and as such are there illegally, even…
Myanmar called an annual report issued by the U.S. State Department “sad and regrettable” after being named among the worst human trafficking offenders. Along with Iran, North Korea and Syria, the report cited Myanmar’s negligence to meet “the minimum standards for eliminating trafficking.” Reuters reported that Myanmar’s ranking, which got downgraded from the previous year,…
