More than 110 Rohingyas, including children, have been arrested by authorities in Myanmar as they attempted to cross into Malaysia, state media said on Friday.
A total of 112 “Bengalis”, including 12 children, traveling “without any official documents” were arrested in Bogale township, in the south-east of the country, according to the “Global New Light of Myanmar” newspaper. “Bengali” is a pejorative term used in Burma to refer to the Muslim minority.
According to local media, citing sources close to the police, the arrests took place on the morning of December 20.
A court then sentenced 35 of the group’s members, aged over 18, to five years in prison for traveling without documents, the Global New Light of Myanmar reported, adding that 13 minors would be detained in a “training center “until their 20s.
Hundreds of thousands of Rohingyas, members of a community that immigrated to Burma several generations ago, have fled the Buddhist-majority country in recent years, where most of them do not have access to citizenship, nor health or education.
In 2017, a military crackdown in the country caused hundreds of thousands of Rohingya to flee to neighboring Bangladesh, with harrowing accounts of murder, rape and arson.
Burma is facing charges of genocide before the highest court of the United Nations following this mass exodus.
On December 5, thirteen Rohingyas were found dead on the side of a road near the town of Hlegu, near Yangon.
Myanmar police later arrested 12 suspected members of a smuggling organization accused of being linked to the deaths.
Malaysia, with a predominantly Muslim population, is a favorite destination for Rohingyas seeking to flee persecution.