The Plight Of The Rohingya

The human rights situation in Burma has led to thousands of people of various ethnic groups fleeing to neighboring countries. The Rohingya Muslims from Arakan state are vulnerable as they have no legal status in Burma and are considered to be non-citizens. The plight of the Rohingya demonstrates how people without citizenship rights in their own country can be forced out and become refugees, leaving them still vulnerable and without citizenship in the country of asylum.

I first met this situation head on when I arrived in Mae Sot, a Thai town on the Burma border, that is known transfer point for migrant workers, both documented and not, to enter Thailand in search of better opportunities.

Two hundred Rohingya Muslim refugees, all men, had paid several hundred dollars each to human traffickers to smuggle them out of Burma, and take them to Malaysia. After a harrowing 9 days at sea in an open boat, with little water and food, they were abandoned in northern Thailand. Fearing deportation, they had taken refuge in a small mosque, where they now live in dismal conditions.

The plight of the Rohingya in Thailand presents the dilemma of undocumented migrants. They are unwanted in Thailand, and Burmese immigration law has stripped away Burmese nationality from the Rohingyas, making them foreigners in their own country. And, the sad reality is that as Muslims, they are particularly unlikely to be accepted for third country resettlement in the security environment prevailing in the post-9/11 world.

The Rohingya have faced continuing persecution by the military government in Burma, and have escaped to to neighbouring countries in large numbers. The Burmese government has created a complicated system of bureaucratic conditions and procedures, which make it very difficult for refugees to be cleared and repatriated. Even though the Government of Thailand wants the refugees to leave, there is a very slow rate of repatriation.

The Rohingya's Plight In Burma

The Arakan State of Burma is inhabited by two ethnic communities, the Rakhine Buddhist and the Rohingya Muslims. The Rakhine Buddhist is the majority group and is close to the Burman in terms of religion and language, while the minority group, the Rohingya Muslims, is ethnically and religiously related to the people from the region of Chittagong in southern Bangladesh. The Rohingya Muslims number approximately 1.4 million.

The Rohingya have been in Burma since at least the twelfth century and often coexisted relatively peacefully with the Rakhine Buddhists. However, under the military regime of General Ne Win, beginning in 1962, the Muslim residents of Arakan were labeled illegal immigrants who settled in Burma during British rule. The government at the center made efforts to drive them out of Burma, starting with the denial of citizenship. The 1974 Emergency Immigration Act took away Burmese nationality from the Rohingyas, making them foreigners in their own country.

Following the takeover of the country by the military in 1988, there has been increased army presence in Arakan state. This build up has been accompanied by human rights abuses, and the Rohingya continue to face discrimination. They need authorization to travel outside of their villages, their land is confiscated by the government for use by Buddhist settlers, their mosques are destroyed by the military and they are routinely subjected to forced labor.

While there I had the opportunity to attend the mosque and meet with many of the refugees. The desperation among them was palpable: many have no idea of what to do, or where to turn. This situation represents an urgent need for civil society working in the region to work together in an integrated solution.