Myanmar gave citizenship on Monday to 209 Muslims displaced by sectarian violence, after the first phase of a project aimed at determining the status of about a million Rohingya whose claims to nationality have been rejected in the past.
Meanwhile Myanmar government’s chief negotiator said on Monday that efforts to secure a historic ceasefire agreement with ethnic armed groups are “at a crucial moment” at the start of a fresh round of negotiations.
The Rohingya Muslim minority in Rakhine State need permission to move from their villages or from camps, where almost 140,000 remain after being displaced in deadly clashes with ethnic Rakhine Buddhists in 2012.
The government and many people refer to them as “Bengali”, a term that implies they are illegal immigrants from Bangladesh, although Rohingya families have lived in the area for generations. Many of them are effectively stateless because they are not recognised as citizens by Myanmar or by Bangladesh.
Officials from Myanmar’s immigration ministry told Reuters that 1,094 Muslims took part in the pilot verification process in displacement camps in Myebon.
Some of the 209 who received citizenship were members of the Kaman Muslim minority, who are recognised by the government as indigenous to Myanmar, but there were also Rohingya.
