Rohingya News Agency (phuketwan): Doctors are making an urgent plea for B Negative blood donors for a pregnant Rohingya woman who is about to give birth at a Phuket hospital.

The woman is expected to go into labor at the Vachira Phuket Hospital in Phuket City later today.

Doctors have examined her and expect the delivery will involve complications. As soon as they have sufficient blood stocks, the birth will be induced.

The woman fled with 107 others on a boat from Sittwe in Burma that arrived at Kuraburi, north of Phuket, on January 27.

Since then, she has been housed with other women and Rohingya children at a family shelter not far from Takuapa, in Phang Nga province.

Doctors on Phuket say her condition is not as good as it should be because of the conditions in the Burmese camp for displaced persons where she was being held.

One of the women who fled Sittwe at the same time gave birth to a boy on board the boat. Other women fleeing Burma in advanced stages of pregnancy are known to have died at sea during childbirth.

Regimented rape, day-to-day brutality, lack of medical aid and restrictions on the right to work are among the reasons Rohingya give for fleeing the country in which they are denied citizenship.

Those who are not corralled in rough camps in Rakhine state, also known as Arakan, are confined to ghettos in Sittwe or surrounding townships.

Women and children have begun joining menfolk on boats from Burma in record numbers this ''sailing season'' since renewed violence broke out in June last year.

Those who wish to donate B Negative blood should call Vachira Phuket on 076 361234 or the Red Cross on 076 211766.