Rohingya Refugee Crisis

2015 Rohingya Refugee Crises OR BOAT PEOPLE ( as international Media call it ) 

The plight of the Rohingyas from Myanmar and Bangladesh is being described as Asia’s biggest mass exodus.

The Rohingyas, numbering nearly a million and thereby constituting a significant portion of the approximately 55 million population of Myanmar, are recognized by the UN as one of the most persecuted ethnic minorities in the world. 

The level of persecution has only varied over the past few years, and has worsened now

Reasons for Recent Crisis :- 

The recent crisis is a complex mix resulting from ethnic cleansing and sectarian violence inside Myanmar, human trafficking, illegal and irregular movement of people in Southeast Asia, lack of coordination in tackling human rights issues of this magnitude within the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) member states and a negligent approach towards social and democratic rights of people in the region

Origin of the Rohingyas 

The Rohingya are minority Muslim community in the predominantly Buddhist Myanmar and they reside in Rakhine province of that country

They are of Bengali ethnicity as well as some Burmese Indians, of Islamic faith who are Indo-Aryan people and descendants of the Muslim who came and settled in this part of Burma long time ago esp after the British capture of Burma Origin dates back to the Persian and Arab traders, and are not Bengalis, in spite of the fact that they mainly speak that language, and thus their settlement dates back to the 16th century, although the number of Muslim settlers before the British Rule in unclear.

According to some historians, they migrated to Burma from Bengal primarily during the period of British rule in Burma (after the first Anglo-Burmese War in 1826), and to a lesser extent, after the Burmese independence in 1948 and Bangladesh Liberation War in 1971.

British Regime: 

The waves of migration of Bengali ethnicity people from parts of bengal to Burma was majorly related to the demands of cheap labor by the British in the paddy fields and other forms of work.

British policy encouraged Bengali inhabitants from adjacent regions to migrate into the then lightly populated and fertile valleys of Arakan as farm laborers

The East India Company extended the Bengal Presidency to Arakan. There was no international boundary between Bengal and Arakan and no restrictions on migration between the regions.

In the early 19th century, thousands of Bengalis from the Chittagong region settled in Arakan seeking work.

In British India, Rakhine province used to be administered from Chittagong and the Rohingyas moved freely between Bengal and Burma.

Other parts of Bangladesh where they used to settle were--- Bandarban and Cox`s Bazar districts.

As of 2013, around 1.3 million Rohingyas live in Burma, while Bangladesh, Malaysia, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, Thailand, Indonesia and India being the other parts where they can be found.

WWII and Japanese Insurgency: 

When Japan captured Burma during WWII and forced the British soldiers to move back, a power vacuum was left behind which forced the Rohingyas to come to limelight.

The British tried and used them as a buffer against the Japanese troops. It was during that time that majority of them fled en masse’ to parts of Bengal and modern Chittagong, while many instead of fighting the Japanese troops, destroyed Buddhist monasteries, pagodas, and houses, and committed atrocities in northern Arakan .

1940’s Rohingya rebellion

 During the 1940 rebellion of formation of two nations –Pakistan and India, the Rohingyas in Burma as well formed their own group and started protesting granting rights to have merged into East Pakistan (now Bangladesh)

Even before the independence of Burma in January 1948, Muslim leaders from Arakan addressed themselves to Muhammad Ali Jinnah, the founder of Pakistan, asking him for the desired incorporation.

Post independence and Bangladesh liberation War (1971) 

From 1971 to 1973, the Bangladesh Liberation War and its accompanying genocide saw an exodus of ten million Bengali refugees to neighboring countries.

A majority of these refugees were Hindus

The main issue started in 1982 when the contemporary Myanmar government under the leadership of General Ne Win’s government enacted the Burmese Nationality Law, which deprives the Rohingya citizenship 

The Burmese JUNTA which ruled Burma after that for over half a century, heavily discriminated minorities in Burma like these Rohingyas and migrants from China.

And even now there has been no change of this trend, which infact have led to more socio-economic isolation and persecutions upon the Rohingyas.

2012 Rakhine State Riots 

The 2012 Rakhine State riots were a series of conflicts between Rohingya Muslims who are majority in the northern Rakhine and ethnic Rakhines (Majorly Buddhist faith) who are majority in the south.

Before the riots, there were widespread and strongly held fears circulating among Buddhist Rakhines that they would soon become a minority in their ancestral state

The riots finally became fiercer with the interference of the NGOs who supported the Rohingya Muslims although the Rakhines are claimed to be equally poor

Finally it came under control with the interference of the government; deploying troops in the region and declaring curfew to control violence

July 2012: Burmese Government did not include the Rohingya minority group in the census—classified as stateless Bengali Muslims from Bangladesh since 1982.

About 1.4 lakh Rohingya in Burma remained confined in IDP camps and most of then fled to adjoining Bangladesh.

Thousands who remained back became internally displaced and their properties were displaced and were chased out of their homes. Periodically they do try and escape these camps, where they are incessantly tortured and turmoil and in the recent past have found some greener pastures in adjoining countries like Malaysia, Thailand and Indonesia 

They are also facilitated by people smugglers and their condition have worsened when none of the aforesaid countries do not want them now

2015 Rohingya Refugee Crisis 

In 2015, to escape systemic violence and persecution from Burma government thousands of Rohingyas migrated from Burma and Bangladesh, collectively dubbed as 'boat people' by international media, to Southeast Asian countries including Malaysia, Indonesia and Thailand by rickety boats via the waters of the Strait of Malacca and the Andaman Sea

The modern Burmese state is built upon the concept of Buddhist Burmese supremacy; this concept has been used by the military as a pretext for their rule.

In Buddhist-majority Myanmar, even the name Rohingya is taboo. Myanmar officials refer to the group as “Bengalis” and insist they are illegal immigrants from Bangladesh, even though most have lived in the country for generations.

Status of Rohingya in Myanmar :- 

In Myanmar they have been denied the basic human rights. The Rohingya people are considered ‘stateless entities’, as the Myanmar government has been refusing to recognize them as one of the ethnic groups of the country.

There is no legal protection for them from the government of Myanmar.

They are neither allowed to register their marriage, nor have education.

There are also claims that many people have been trafficked and died in all those neighboring countries they tried to get settle—Indonesia, Malaysia and Thailand

An estimated 3000 refugees from Burma and Bangladesh have been rescued or swim to shore and several thousand more are believed to remain trapped on boats at sea with little food or water.

The crisis has been sparked by smugglers 

Their condition is even worse when they travel to other countries. When the refugees arrive in Thailand and Malaysia, they are still at the mercy of traffickers, who detain them in jungle prisons and demand ransoms from friends and family. If they can pay, they are released, but if they cannot they are often killed.

Thailand police discovered 24 bodies in the mountains of southern Thailand in May, believed to be the victims of smugglers.

Most refugees that arrive in Thailand or Malaysia look to stay and get work and then send money home to their families. The refugees work in the fishing or farming industries and often don’t get paid or face dire working conditions. Those that have made out of Myanmar by boat face an uncertain future. Malaysia, Indonesia and Thailand had recently sparked growing international outrage by driving off boats overloaded with starving Rohingya as well as Bangladeshis.

Malaysia’s handling the Rohingya refugees

Malaysia is not a signatory to the 1951 Refugee Convention and does not possess a legislative and administrative framework to address refugee matters. Therefore, the inclusion of more Rohingya refugees would have further strained Malaysia’s domestic capacity to cope with illegal immigrants in the country.

The Rohingya refugee crisis also poses domestic challenges for Malaysia. The growing presence of Rohingya refugees could worsen the social, economic and political problems associated with illegal immigrants in Malaysia.

Other countries dealing with the Rohingya immigration Issue 

Malaysia and Indonesia have agreed to provide temporary shelter for the refugees in their respective countries for up to a year, after which the international community should assist to repatriate and resettle the refugee to a third country.

Thailand said that it would provide humanitarian assistance and would not turn away boats that wish to enter its waters The United States have asked Myanmar to give full rights to the Rohingyas and the exodus

Although, steps to repatriate Rohingya refugees began in 2009; however, despite earlier efforts by the UN, the Rohingyas were unable to return because of the 2012 communal violence.

On 29th March, 2014: the Burmese govt banned the word Rohingya as asked for registration of the minority as “Bengalis” in the 2014 Burma Census, the first of its kind in three decades.

INDIA's STAND on the Issue :- 

While India is not immediately affected by the Rohingya refugee migration from Myanmar, it cannot be oblivious to the regional dimensions of such human migrations based on ethnic discontent.

Earlier, the Buddhist Chakmas of Chittagong Hill Tracts of Bangladesh, who had felt discriminated in that country, had migrated to Mizoram state of India. The Chakma presence had been a source of considerable local tension in Mizoram.

Any diversion of Rohingya refugees from camps in Bangladesh to adjoining north-eastern states of India would not be acceptable to New Delhi.

The GOI hence should advise the Myanmar government to administer a more effective administrative presence and better handling of the circumstances.

However a degree of sensitivity without appearing overtly interfering into Myanmar’s internal politics has to be kept in mind

Basic rights induction by the Myanmar government – like basic rights of livelihood with respect to employment, trade and educational opportunities to their Rohingya people, even if it has to be without conferring on them citizenship and voting rights

Way Forward

 The plight of the Muslim Rohingya refugees drifting without succor in the Andaman Sea is appalling; and must be alleviated

The Thai, Malaysian and Indonesian governments should put pressure to do their humanitarian duty towards these unfortunate people

But those governments are also right to say both that they cannot be expected to bear the burden alone, and that the problem is bound to get worse unless the root causes, which are the contested status of the Rohingya in Burma and the existence of a ruthless people-trafficking industry in the region, are not tackled in a determined way.



Right now a Resettlement Plan as declared by the Yangon government seems to be fair, ---which will allow the Rohingyas to prove their identity and that their families have lived in Burma for 60 years or more to become “natural citizens” and those who wont be able to do the same would face deportation

The Burmese government’s draconian formula for dealing with this problem from history is both ludicrous and vicious.

It is a recipe for the kind of tragedy we are just witnessing on the high seas, with many more disasters to come.

It also provides an opportunity for the criminal rings that profit from the desperation of families trapped in camps where there is no work and no hope.

The temporary solution is a settlement arrangement for the asylum seekers and refugees who are coming to these countries. There has to be a mechanism and strategy at the regional level that allows countries of the ASEAN region to have an oversight on coordinated management.

The approach might be slightly different in every country, but it has to be an overarching strategy ----Illegal movement of people, combined with human trafficking and cross-border migration, can weaken Myanmar’s relations with its neighbor Bangladesh and its ASEAN partners.

It may, in effect, undermine ASEAN’s efforts towards integration by spoiling mutual trust and confidence in each other ---- In addition, continuous ethnic violence inside Myanmar goes against its own agenda of being recognized as a democratic nation --- It is a sad paradox that the partial liberalization of Burma in recent years has released both genuinely democratic forces and a popular chauvinism, particularly an anti-Muslim chauvinism, within the Buddhist majority which undermines those forces. Burma’s government must face down that chauvinism and change its policies.