Escalating plight for squatters

Last week, 21 squatter houses on Ayeyawaddy River bank in Bago Region were demolished, to make the area more pleasant to tourists. 

Twenty-one squatter houses located on the banks of the Ayeyawaddy River in Hsan Taw Ward, Pyay, Bago Region, have been torn down to make way for tourism infrastructure.

The order to tear the houses down was issued on December 15 and carried out the next day. Each family that lost a house will reportedly be compensated up to US$50. 

“We’ve been living here since before there was anything here. Now that the river bank has become crowded, the authorities ordered us to move, claiming we do not own the land. But even if we did move, another owner could appear, and we would have to move again. We don’t know to whom we can report this. The ward administrator said the owner told us to vacate his land. Although we were promised compensation, we haven’t gotten it yet,” said one evictee.

The squatters have lived on the river bank for over 20 years after they cleaned up a rubbish dump that used to cover the area. Most of the adults are trishaw drivers, hawkers and stevedores. Several schoolchildren are among the evictees.

 “The main reason [for the demolitions] is the honour of the town. This is a port where tourists enter and exit. Currently, the tourist presence is increasing, and many tourists take photos of the squatter homes. They make the environment dirty. We have been asking them to move for a long time. Recently, the landowner appeared and asked us for help, so I asked him for $50 for each evictee. They may also receive new places to live. This is necessary to accomplish the port’s development,” said Thein Swe, an administrator for Hsan Taw Ward.

Also last week, an unknown gang of over 200 people demolished the squatter houses in Anawrahtar industrial zone, Hlaingthaya Township on the night of December 15 and 16 destroying more than 300 houses and injuring eight people, according to the squatters.

“We have been facing housing problems. We could not afford high rental fees anymore and so we came to live here after selling all our possessions. Even for this place, we have to pay US$70,” said Than Ei, a girl from the squatter place.

“They should have told us when we started building houses that we were not permitted to stay here. But now, we heard that a gang was hired to destroy our houses by Wah Wah Win Co. This is terrible. At night, they have been demolishing our houses with cudgels and swords for two days and also burnt down some of the houses. We are afraid that these people would come again at night. The police near the area refused to help us,” said Thida Win whose house was destroyed.

Since the beginning of December, many squatters started building houses near the industrial zone owned by Wah Wah Win Co in Hlaingthaya Township and now the number of squatter houses has mushroomed to more than 3,000.

It was also reported that earlier this month, the Mandalay City Council (MCDC) ordered the authorities to demolish the remaining squatter huts located near Gawwun pier on the bank of Ayeyawady River, before the arrival of Norwegian King Harald and Queen Sonja. Bulldozers were at the scene.