Thailand grants access to presumed Rohingya: UN

UN has urged Myanmar's neighbours to open their borders to people escaping the communal violence.

BANGKOK: The UN's refugee agency said Wednesday it had received permission from Thailand to visit about 850 people, many thought to be from Myanmar's Rohingya minority, held after raids on camps in the Thai south.

Hundreds of migrants have been arrested in the past week in police sweeps of remote areas in rubber plantations near the border with Malaysia, leading the UNHCR to try to confirm whether any of them plan to seek asylum.

"The Thai authorities have agreed in principle to give us access to this group," Vivian Tan, spokeswoman for the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees office, told AFP.

"There are likely to be Rohingya among them, but we can't confirm their identity without us first talking to them and doing a preliminary assessment."

She said no date had been agreed yet but the UN was pushing to do the interviews as soon as possible.

Thousands of Muslim-minority Rohingya have fled communal unrest in Myanmar's western state of Rakhine, heading to Thailand and other countries.

Clashes between Buddhists and Muslims have left at least 180 people dead in the state since June, and displaced more than 110,000 others, mostly Rohingya.

Lieutenant General Paradorn Pattanatabut, secretary general of Thailand's National Security Council, confirmed that the government would allow UNHCR access.

"Police are focused on illegal entry, illegal detention and the sheltering of illegal immigrants," he said.

He said 160 minors under the age of 18 have been separated from the group and put into special facilities, with adults detained at two immigration centres and four police stations in the southern province of Songkhla.

Myanmar views the roughly 800,000 Rohingya in Rakhine as illegal Bangladeshi immigrants and denies them citizenship.

The UN, which has called the Rohingya one of the world's most persecuted peoples, has urged Myanmar's neighbours to open their borders to people escaping the communal violence.

Although tensions have eased since a fresh outbreak of killings in Rakhine in October, concerns have grown about the fate of asylum-seekers setting sail in overcrowded boats.

Thailand has faced pressure from rights groups to do more to help Rohingya migrants who reach its territory. The country has been accused of pushing them into neighbouring countries including Malaysia, which offers them sanctuary.