DHAKA: Myanmar has enacted a population law that rights groups said on Sunday targets persecuted Rohingya Muslims, a minority group at the centre of a migration crisis that has seen thousands flee the country.

The new Myanmar legislation would allow regional governments to introduce family planning regulations to lower birth rates in their states.

The state-run Myanma Alinn newspaper reported last Saturday that President Thein Sein approved the law on May 19, The Straits Times publishes this report on Sunday.

Under the legislation, the local authorities can survey their regions to determine if ‘resources are unbalanced because of a high number of migrants in the area, a high population growth rate and a high birth rate’, it said.

They can then ask the central government to impose laws making it compulsory for women to wait ‘at least 36 months’ after giving birth before having another child, Myanma Alinn said.

The consequences for breaking the birth-spacing rules are unclear.

Human Rights Watch (HRW) said the new law clearly targets Muslim Rohingyas who live in Myanmar’s western Rakhine state, where they are not recognized as citizens and instead referred to as ‘Bengalis’ or illegal immigrants from Bangladesh.

‘This will seriously worsen ethnic and religious tensions. We fully expect that the Muslim Rohingya in Rakhine state will be target number one of this legislation,’ said HRW deputy Asia director Phil Robertson.

BDST: 1612 HRS, MAY 24, 2015
RR