Evacuation of 100 houses along Sittwe railway line renders 200 people homeless

Thinzar New, 11 March 2022

About 200 people rendered homeless as their houses were evacuated by the authorities  in Sittwe, the capital city of Arakan State. At a time when the State is passing through a turmoil situation and the price of commodities is increasing, 100 houses at Pyitaw Tha- Ye Chan Byint railway route section faced the action.

Soon after the eviction on 9 March morning, the occupants became homeless. Most of the residents were IDP families from Rathedaung, Kyauktaw and Paletwa townships. Some families from Sittwe are also affected.

The government informed that both sides of the railway line will be cleared as the railway department is planning to reopen the Sittwe- Ye Chan Byint section which was closed after the 2012 riots.

Daw Kyaing Shin Phyu, a refugee from Sein Sin Village under Paletwa Township, lamented that they have no place to live now.

“The refugees are in trouble here again. Even the children cannot go to school now. We have to pick up empty water bottles from the streets of Sittwe to survive,” she added.

Kyaw Tun Maung, a resident of Sittwe, said that if the demolition takes place the government should have provided alternate lands  to them. He expressed dissatisfaction that when government officials demolished the squatters' houses, they did not try to build new housesfor the refugees.

The demolition was materialized after the authority issued a notice in the last week of February to remove the squatter settlements along the railway line by 1 March.

Many of those displaced people were already affected by the civil war in Rakhine State and now they are surviving as daily wage earners in Sittwe.