Forced Migration: Rohingya Muslims
Background and causes:
The Rohingya are a Muslim minority who have lived for centuries in the predominately Buddhist
Myanmar.
However, the Myanmar government has not recognised the Rohingya as an official ethnic group or
citizens of Myanmar since 1982. This has made them the world’s largest stateless population.
As a stateless population, Rohingya families are denied basic rights and protection and are extremely
vulnerable to exploitation, sexual and gender-based violence and abuse.
The Rohingya have suffered decades of violence, discrimination and persecution in Myanmar. Their
largest exodus began in August 2017 after a massive wave of violence broke out in Myanmar’s
Rakhine State.
Entire villages were burned to the ground, thousands of families were killed or separated, and
massive human rights violations were reported.
Patterns:
Nearly 890,000 Rohingya refugees are living at the Kutupalong and Nayapara refugee camps in
Bangladesh’s Cox’s Bazar region.
Approximately 75% of those living in the Cox’s Bazar region arrived in 2017.
More than half of those who have arrived are women and children.
Rohingya refugees have also sought refuge in other neighbouring countries like Thailand, Pakistan,
and India as well as Indonesia, Malaysia, and Saudi Arabia.
Approximately 370,000 people were internally displaced (IDP) inside Myanmar at the end of 2020,
with an additional 189,000 newly displaced people inside Myanmar since February 2021.
By September 2019, around 1.3 million Rohingya were estimated to be in Bangladesh.
Impacts of the migration:
Testing to the transience of life in camps, a massive fire ripped through a Rohingya refugee camp in
Bangladesh on March 22, 2021. Even as reports of at least 15 killed came in, hundreds remain
unaccounted.
A boat carrying 90 Rohingya aiming to reach Malaysia was stranded for two weeks in the Andaman
Sea, after its engine failed. Eight refugees died on the boat while the others were rescued by the
Indian coast guard.
India has denied refugee status to the Rohingya, deeming them to ‘pose a threat to national security’
and has begun to actively deport them.
South-eastern Bangladesh, where the refugees are concentrated, is an ecologically fragile region and
refugee settlement has damaged reserve forests, due to the erection of makeshift shelters and
burning of firewood. This has triggered rapid degradation on forest lands
Bangladesh’s economy spends an estimated $1.21 billion a year supporting the Rohingya.
Unemployed Rohingya have been found to be involved in criminal activities like Yaba drug smuggling,
and managing law enforcement in the Cox’s Bazar region has become a sizeable task.
Background and causes:
The Rohingya are a Muslim minority who have lived for centuries in the predominately Buddhist
Myanmar.
However, the Myanmar government has not recognised the Rohingya as an official ethnic group or
citizens of Myanmar since 1982. This has made them the world’s largest stateless population.
As a stateless population, Rohingya families are denied basic rights and protection and are extremely
vulnerable to exploitation, sexual and gender-based violence and abuse.
The Rohingya have suffered decades of violence, discrimination and persecution in Myanmar. Their
largest exodus began in August 2017 after a massive wave of violence broke out in Myanmar’s
Rakhine State.
Entire villages were burned to the ground, thousands of families were killed or separated, and
massive human rights violations were reported.
Patterns:
Nearly 890,000 Rohingya refugees are living at the Kutupalong and Nayapara refugee camps in
Bangladesh’s Cox’s Bazar region.
Approximately 75% of those living in the Cox’s Bazar region arrived in 2017.
More than half of those who have arrived are women and children.
Rohingya refugees have also sought refuge in other neighbouring countries like Thailand, Pakistan,
and India as well as Indonesia, Malaysia, and Saudi Arabia.
Approximately 370,000 people were internally displaced (IDP) inside Myanmar at the end of 2020,
with an additional 189,000 newly displaced people inside Myanmar since February 2021.
By September 2019, around 1.3 million Rohingya were estimated to be in Bangladesh.
Impacts of the migration:
Testing to the transience of life in camps, a massive fire ripped through a Rohingya refugee camp in
Bangladesh on March 22, 2021. Even as reports of at least 15 killed came in, hundreds remain
unaccounted.
A boat carrying 90 Rohingya aiming to reach Malaysia was stranded for two weeks in the Andaman
Sea, after its engine failed. Eight refugees died on the boat while the others were rescued by the
Indian coast guard.
India has denied refugee status to the Rohingya, deeming them to ‘pose a threat to national security’
and has begun to actively deport them.
South-eastern Bangladesh, where the refugees are concentrated, is an ecologically fragile region and
refugee settlement has damaged reserve forests, due to the erection of makeshift shelters and
burning of firewood. This has triggered rapid degradation on forest lands
Bangladesh’s economy spends an estimated $1.21 billion a year supporting the Rohingya.
Unemployed Rohingya have been found to be involved in criminal activities like Yaba drug smuggling,
and managing law enforcement in the Cox’s Bazar region has become a sizeable task.
