World

By Kiana Duncan for RFA2024.11.04Many of the hundreds of thousands of Myanmar citizens who have fled to Malaysia to escape their country’s turmoil and repression have been in limbo for years, waiting to be granted refugee status, which would ensure at least basic rights, while the threat of deportation hangs over them.“It gives me nightmares, that I can’t stay any longer in Malaysia,” said an ethnic Kachin human rights activist from Myanmar who asked to be identified as just Brang, speaking of the prospect of deportation from Malaysia where he has been staying since last year.Like other countries in the region, Malaysia has seen a surge of people arriving from Myanmar fleeing war, conscription and a crumbling economy, especially since an early 2021 coup ended a decade of tentative reform a...

By RFA Vietnamese2024.10.22Read more on this topic in VietnameseA global free speech group is calling on Vietnam to end its intimidation of Dang Thi Hue, an activist and social media campaigner who has been critical of the government. Hue was arrested in October 2019 for protesting about illegal toll booths and sentenced to 42 months in prison for “disturbing public order” and property fraud. The sentence was reduced by three months on appeal.Since she was freed in January 2023, Hue has continued to criticize the government on Facebook.In May this year, she was grabbed off the street by six people, one in police uniform, all of which was captured on a nearby resident’s security camera.Hue was interrogated for more than 24 hours about her Facebook posts, ordered to stop criticizing the gove...

By RFA Vietnamese2024.10.23Read more on this topic in VietnameseActivists living in Vietnam and abroad have sent a letter to Communist Party General Secretary To Lam asking him to honor the United Nations Charter and its commitment to “fundamental human rights” and “the dignity and worth of the human person.”The call, signed by dozens of people and groups, was posted on the change.org site on Oct. 20, after Lam’s official visits to the U.S. and France. In meetings with President Joe Biden and France’s Emmanuel Macron, and in an address to the U.N. General Assembly, Lam spoke of a new era for Vietnam with the government promoting and protecting human rights.“We, the Vietnamese people at home and abroad who aspire for freedom, democracy and human rights, acknowledge the above statement and b...

By RFA Vietnamese2024.10.24Read more on this topic in VietnameseA man who was imprisoned in 2018 following nationwide protests has been released 21 months early – the third activist in a month to be set free ahead of their full sentence.In September, two prominent political prisoners – climate campaigner Hoang Thi Minh Hong and human rights activist Tran Huynh Duy Thuc – were released from prison a day before top leader To Lam flew to the United States to speak before the United Nations General Assembly.On Tuesday, Tran Long Phi was released from Chau Binh Prison in southern Ben Tre province, according to state-run media. He had been serving an eight-year sentence for “activities to topple the government.” The charge was related to protests that erupted across Vietnam in June 2018 in oppos...