White Card Holders Start Returning Cards in Arakan State

White Card Holders Start Returning Cards in Arakan State
by -
Narinjara

Temporary identity cards, also known as white cards, expired on 31 March and should be returned to the authorities by the card holders, said U Khin Soe, the director of the Arakan State Immigration Department.

He said: “The white cards expired on 31 March, so since 1 April the cards have not been legal. That is why we have been calling for people to return the cards. The cards can be returned over two months, April and May.”

After white-card holders have returned their cards they can apply for citizenship from 1 June onwards and the authorities will decide on whether to grant the applications.

U Khine Soe said: “People who return their white cards will be issued a receipt which gives their white card number and from 1 June people can use those receipts to apply for citizenship.”

At 71 locations in Arakan State 36 different groups of officials, including village heads, have been authorised by the government to collect the returned white cards. An immigration director said that there will be nobody collecting white cards in Gwa, Taunggup, Ann and Mraaung Townships because no Muslim people live there, but that white cards can be handed in at all other townships.

U Soe Naing an immigration department officer in Maungdaw District said 916 white cards were returned to their district alone on 1 April.

He said: “Of the people who returned white cards 489 came from Taungpyo Sub-Township, 359 from Maungdaw and 112 from Buthidaung townships. In total there were 916 people [who returned white cards]. Those numbers are based only on the city area we have not yet got the numbers from the outlying areas.”

He hopes that the majority of white card holders will return their cards and not hold on to them because they are illegal now and people should respect the government’s laws.

This is not only happening Maungdaw District, cards should also be returned in Sittwe District, but very few have been returned. U Aung Win from Bumay Muslim Village said this was because the white card holders are suspicious of the procedure to collect the expired white cards and issue receipts.

He said: “We are not against returning the white cards, we are just suspicious of the returning process. Our cards were issued and signed by the township immigration department officers, so we want them to take back the returned cards. But now, it is the ward and village administrators who will take [our returned cards] and issue us with receipts, this has made us suspicious.”

U Aung Win said that to allay their suspicions there should be transparency, concrete promises and guarantees when they return their white cards.

The president’s office announced on 11 February that white cards would expire on 31 March and that they should all be returned no later than 31 May.

According to information issued on 23 December 2014 there were 590,016 white card holders in the whole country.

Translated by Aung Myat Soe English version written by Mark Inkey for BNI

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