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Posts Tagged ‘rohingya’

Plight of the Rohingya

Wednesday, September 27th, 2017

September 27, 2017

In recent weeks, violence and panic have gripped parts of the Southeast Asia nation of Myanmar (also called Burma). In late August, dozens of people were killed in clashes between Rohingya militants and government forces in western Myanmar. Since then, Rohingya villages have been attacked by the Myanmar military and local people hostile to the Rohingya. Hundreds of thousands of Rohingya have been forced to flee to refugee camps in nearby Bangladesh. The violence has also displaced thousands of other people who live in the area of conflict. Refugee camps are filled beyond capacity, creating dangerously unsanitary conditions, and the camps lack enough food, water, and medicine.

Rohingya Muslim people, who crossed over from Myanmar into Bangladesh, wait for their turn to collect food aid near Kutupalong refugee camp in Cox's Bazar, Bangladesh on September 20, 2017. Credit: © Sk Hasan Ali, Shutterstock

Rohingya people who have fled Myanmar await food outside the Kutupalong refugee camp in Cox’s Bazar, Bangladesh, on Sept. 20, 2017. Credit: © Sk Hasan Ali, Shutterstock

Sometimes called “the world’s most persecuted minority,” the Rohingya are a Muslim-majority ethnic group in Buddhist-majority Myanmar. Rohingya have lived for centuries in Myanmar, where their community numbers some 1 million people. Most Rohingya live in the northern part of Rakhine State near the border with Bangladesh. Myanmar does not recognize the Rohingya as legal citizens. Instead, the government considers them to be illegal immigrants. Tensions and conflicts have occurred between Muslim Rohingya and Buddhist and Hindu Rakhine people for decades.

The Myanmar government blames the recent escalation of violence on rebels of the militant Arakan Salvation Rohingya Army (ARSA), who have attacked police posts and been accused—often without proof—of massacring Buddhists. Many outside observers, however, and the Rohingya themselves, say the ARSA attacks are largely a response to a government campaign to drive the minority group from the country. They accuse the military and Buddhist mobs of beating and killing Rohingya civilians and burning their villages. The government claims that it is targeting only ARSA militants—it even says the Rohingya are burning their own villages. A United Nations (UN) human rights official estimates that as many as 1,000 people have died in the recent violence, most of them Rohingya. Myanmar leader Aung San Suu Kyi has been criticized for her lack of response to the Rohingya crisis, and the truth behind the violence remains unclear.

Migrants sit on their boat as they wait to be rescued by Acehnese fishermen on the sea off East Aceh, Indonesia, Wednesday, May 20, 2015. Hundreds of migrants stranded at sea for months were rescued and taken to Indonesia, officials said Wednesday, the latest in a stream of Rohingya and Bangladeshi migrants to reach shore in a growing crisis confronting Southeast Asia. Credit: AP Photo

Myanmar Rohingya refugees crowd a boat off the coast of Indonesia. Credit: AP Photo

After Burma won independence in 1948 (the nation changed its name to Myanmar in 1989), the government acknowledged the citizenship of the various Muslim groups living within the country. In 1962, however, a new military government took over, and it refused to recognize the Rohingya as citizens. Since then, Rohingya have consistently been denied many rights and services by the government. In 2012, rioting broke out between Rohingya and Rakhine Buddhists. More than 140,000 Rohingya fled that violence, and many thousands have since left each year, seeking refuge in Bangladesh, Thailand, Indonesia, or Malaysia. The current plight of the Rohingya has sparked protests in many Muslim-majority nations and other places around the world.

Tags: aung san suu kyi, bangladesh, myanmar, rohingya
Posted in Current Events, Government & Politics, Military Conflict, People, Race Relations, Religion | Comments Off

Migrant Crisis in Asia

Wednesday, May 20th, 2015

May 20, 2015

Government officials from three Southeast Asian countries—Indonesia, Malaysia, and Thailand—met today in Malaysia’s capital, Kuala Lumpur, and agreed to stop turning away migrant ships from their coasts. At least 3,500 migrants from Bangladesh and Myanmar have come ashore in one of the three nations over the last few weeks, but some 7,000 more migrants are thought to be still adrift at sea. The migrants are in distress from their long journeys and many of them are dehydrated and malnourished.

Migrants sit on their boat as they wait to be rescued by Acehnese fishermen on the sea off East Aceh, Indonesia, Wednesday, May 20, 2015. Hundreds of migrants stranded at sea for months were rescued and taken to Indonesia, officials said Wednesday, the latest in a stream of Rohingya and Bangladeshi migrants to reach shore in a growing crisis confronting Southeast Asia. Credit: AP Photo

Migrants wait to be rescued by fishermen off the coast of Aceh, Indonesia, May 20, 2015. Hundreds of migrants stranded at sea for months were rescued and taken to Indonesia, officials reported, the latest in a stream of Rohingya and Bangladeshi migrants to reach shore in a growing crisis confronting Southeast Asia. Credit: AP Photo

Refugees from Bangladesh are mostly economic migrants seeking jobs. The migrants from Myanmar, however, are Rohingya Muslims, a group that has long been persecuted in Myanmar. Rohingya, even those from families who have lived in Myanmar for generations, are denied citizenship in the predominantly Buddhist nation and have few rights there.

The current migrant boat crisis in Southeast Asia began a few weeks ago. Previously, migrants from Bangladesh and Myanmar had traveled by sea to Thailand and then overland. Thailand recently cracked down on this overland traffic, and now smugglers are sending migrants exclusively on sea routes. Often these human traffickers abandon the migrants if a ship founders. Navies from Indonesia, Malaysia, and Thailand have been turning away the boat people at their shores and have sometimes towed stricken boats to the shores of other nations.

The agreement to permit migrants to enter the host nations by sea solves a humanitarian crisis in the short run. Eventually, however, the solution lies in helping Bangladesh to become more economically sound and pressuring Myanmar to recognize and stop persecuting the Rohingya population living in its borders.

 

Other World Book articles:

  • Immigration
  • Myanmar (2014-a Back in time article)

 

 

 

Tags: bangladesh, boat people, indonesia, malaysia, myanmar, rohingya, thailand, unauthorized immigrants
Posted in Current Events, Government & Politics, People | Comments Off

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