Who are the Rohingya?

- The Rohingya, who numbered around one million in Myanmar at the start of 2017, are one
of the many ethnic minorities in the country. Rohingya Muslims represent the largest
percentage of Muslims in Myanmar, with the majority living in Rakhine state.
- They are descendants of Arab traders and other groups who have been in the region for
generations.
- But the government of Myanmar, a predominantly Buddhist country, denies the Rohingya
citizenship and even excluded them from the 2014 census, refusing to recognise them as a
people.
- It sees them as illegal immigrants from Bangladesh.
- Since the 1970s, Rohingya have migrated across the region in significant numbers.
Estimates of their numbers are often much higher than official figures.
- In the last few years, before the latest crisis, thousands of Rohingya were making perilous
journeys out of Myanmar to escape communal violence or alleged abuses by the security
forces
Why are they fleeing?
- Armed conflict between minority groups and government military forces has gone on for
decades in Myanmar. It accelerated significantly in August 2017 in Rakhine State, causing
more Rohingya people and others to flee. United Nations Secretary-General António
Guterres described the situation to the Security Council in September as “the world’s
fastest-developing refugee emergency and a humanitarian and human rights nightmare.”
- Rohingya crisis: Refugees tell of 'house by house' killings

- At least 6,700 Rohingya, including at least 730 children under the age of five, were killed
in the month after the violence broke out, according to Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF).

- Amnesty International says the Myanmar military also raped and abused Rohingya women
and girls.
- At least 288 villages were partially or totally destroyed by fire in northern Rakhine state
after August 2017, according to analysis of satellite imagery by Human Rights Watch.
- The imagery shows many areas where Rohingya villages were reduced to smouldering
rubble, while nearby ethnic Rakhine villages were left intact.

2017: Fleeing Myanmar

August: Violence increases in Rakhine State among ethnic groups and Myanmar military forces,
triggering a massive exodus of people to Bangladesh.

September: The U.N. refugee agency declares the Rohingya refugee crisis to be a major emergency
and scales up its response.

October: More than 600,000 refugees have arrived in Bangladesh.

November: Myanmar and Bangladesh agree to start repatriating refugees within the next two
months.
2018: Expansion of Existing Refugee Camps and Settlements

SETTLEMENTS

April 2018 - 781,000 refugees living in nine camps and settlements

- Kutupalong Expansion (Largest Population), Kutupalong RC, Jamtoli, Chakmarkul Hakimpara,
Bagghona,Unchiprang, Leda, Nayapara RC

CONTRIBUTION OF COMMUNITY

January 2018 - 315,000 children under 15 years of age had received a five in one vaccination,
including cover for diptheria, tetanus, whooping cough
- 9,543 new arrivals

April 2018 - About 70% of the one million refugees are now receiving food aid
- Almost 100,000 people have been treated for malnutrition

May 2018 - 90% of the 1,090 shelters in Cox's Bazar damaged have been repaired in preparation
for very heavy downpours in June
- All health facilities are now functional

June - July 2018 - 854,155 refugees

- Visitation of UN secretary general & President of the World Bank at Cox's Bazar (Bangladesh),
granting a USD 50 million for health project of the refugees
- Assigned Mobile Teams are on standby to deploy emergency capacity
- 34,032 have been relocated due to landslide and other calamities

August 2018 - 2,165,543 outpatient health consultations were provided

October 2018 - Different health issues were reported such as acute respiratory infection, acute
watery diarrhea and malaria cases

December 2018 - The 16 days of Activism Against Gender- Based Violence was a momentous
joint effort, to raise awareness and galvanize action to prevent and respond to violence against
women and girls.

2019

On August 22, 2019, new repatriations are set to begin and Rohingya refugees in Bangladesh
camps protested after the repatriation plan was announced.
The refugees called on the Myanmar government to ensure full citizenship rights and return land
and properties to the refugees, as well as remuneration for homes and organizations that
the military burned.

Bangladesh authorities said they are preparing for repatriation. “Repatriation may start any
moment,” Foreign Secretary Shahidul Haque said recently. “In the next few weeks we shall
encourage the Rohingyas to go back.” Ko Ko Naing, director general of Myanmar’s Disaster
Management Department, said that reception centers had been set up at Nga Khu Ya and Taung
Pyo Letwe in Rakhine State to receive 300 people a day, and that the refugees would initially be
placed at a temporary camp in Hla Poe Kaung before they are sent back to their villages.

Some Hindu refugees said that they would like to return to Myanmar, but their names were not on
the initial list. Shishu Pal Shil, the Hindu camp majhi (leader), told Human Rights Watch: “When
we came to know about the repatriation of the Rohingya Muslims, I asked when our name will
come in the list. He said possibly in the next round. We are always ready to go back to Myanmar.”

Conclusion: But while conditions are dire in Cox’s Bazar, it is critical to remember that the crisis
continues for those remaining in Rakhine state. Those who live in northern parts of Rakhine state
are essentially confined to their villages through a web of laws and local orders. They face curfews
and the prevailing fear of harassment, beatings or worse from soldiers, the police and militias.

The Plight of Rohingya Refugees in relation to the global normative culture

One main expression of global normative culture is human rights. In relation to this, Rohingya
refugees were exposed to injustices regarding their rights as individuals. Those who were not
registered as refugees of Bangladesh were deprived of the rights and benefits they should get.
Aside from this, the totality of the Rohingya group was deprived of their right to be recognized as
a citizen of Myanmar, thus, they were referred to as stateless or noncitizen. They don’t enjoy what
a normal citizen has and is experiencing. Though the Universal Declaration of Human Rights
(1948) ascertains that ‘‘everyone has the right to a nationality’’ (art. 15(1)), the rights of stateless
people are not ensured everywhere in the world.

According to Uddin (2015), Refugees and asylum seekers are also considered as noncitizens in
host countries and frequently are also deprived of rights conferred by international human rights
law. Therefore, the life of a noncitizen refugee or asylum seeker can become critical, due to the
lack of food, water, shelter, education, means of livelihood, medical support, sanitation, and any
social, political, and civil rights. Such individuals can become objects of exploitation, oppression,
torture, and sexual harassment and are even subject to death due to their statelessness. They are
dealt with as if they were less than human beings. Because of this, the issue about the Rohingya
refugees gets global and there is now what we call political communication, not just between the
Myanmar and Bangladesh government but also in the international spectrum, most likely in the
United Nation’s concerns. The political struggles and legitimation about this issue are even more
connected to global issues.
Responses from the region

In October 2018, authorities in Bangladesh and Myanmar agreed to repatriate several thousand
Rohingya but offered few specifics on how those refugees would be selected. Alongside criticism
of the plan from the United States and human rights groups, the United Nations urged a cancelation
and warned that conditions in Myanmar were still unsafe for Rohingya. Other governments in
Southeast Asia generally lack established legal frameworks to protect refugees’ rights, and the ten
members of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) have not coordinated a response
to the deepening crisis. ASEAN itself has been mostly silent on the plight of the Rohingya and on
the growing numbers of asylum seekers in member countries, largely because of its members’
commitment to the principle of noninterference in each other’s internal affairs.

Responses from the rest of the world

In December 2016, U.S. President Barack Obama lifted sanctions against Myanmar, saying it had
made strides in improving human rights. The move came amid a crackdown on Rohingya and was
criticized by some as premature. A year later, new U.S. sanctions were imposed against a Myanmar
general for his alleged role in the military’s attacks in Rakhine, and the U.S. government has
continued to widen its sanctions regime on Myanmar military commanders in 2018, as evidence
of the military’s atrocities mounts.

Meanwhile, countries including the United States, Canada, Norway, and South Korea, as well as
international donors, have upped their humanitarian assistance as the flow of Rohingya to
Bangladesh has grown, and in early 2018 a team of UK medics led an emergency response to help
stem the spread of disease in camps. The United Nations has requested $951 million in immediate
relief funds [PDF] for 2018. At the November 2018 ASEAN summit, U.S. Vice President Mike
Pence ramped up pressure on Suu Kyi, saying that Myanmar’s “violence and persecution” toward
the Rohingya were inexcusable.

Advocacy groups including Human Rights Watch, Amnesty International, the Arakan Project, and
Fortify Rights continue to appeal for international pressure on Myanmar’s government. In
November 2018, Amnesty International stripped Suu Kyi of the Ambassador of Conscience Award
it had conferred on her during her fifteen-year house arrest. Earlier in the year, the ICC’s chief
prosecutor launched an investigation into alleged war crimes that forced the exodus of Rohingya.

Still, resentment of the minority group has run deep for generations. Without overhauling “a
culture of pervasive prejudice” and ensuring that Rohingya are treated as human beings, the
situation in Rakhine State is unlikely to improve, says journalist and author Francis Wade.
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