International rights groups are calling for neighboring countries to
protect Rohingya Muslims fleeing Myanmar, where leaked documents
allegedly reveal state-sponsored persecution.
Rohingya
from Myanmar, who were rescued from human traffickers, are held at a
detention center near Thailand's border with Malaysia February 12, 2014.
Two police raids last month freed a total of 636 people, mostly
Rohingya, who were en route to Malaysia.
Damir Sagolj/Reuters
Bangkok, Thailand
As Myanmar
defends itself against allegations of state-sponsored persecution of
its Rohingya Muslim minority, attention has turned to what neighboring
countries are doing to protect Rohingya asylum seekers. International
refugee rights organizations say a coordinated response is needed for
what is a growing refugee crisis in the region.
The mistreatment of the Rohingya, a Muslim minority, is
consequential for neighboring countries trying to cope with a rising
number of refugees while also making economic inroads into
Myanmar, formerly known as Burma. Police and immigration officers in
countries from Thailand
to Australia are accused by rights groups of gross mistreatment of
Rohingya, who live mostly in Rakhine state bordering Bangladesh and are
essentially stateless under Myanmar's law.
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Rohingya are widely disdained by the Buddhist majority in Myanmar.
The community is not recognized as a legitimate ethnic minority under a
1982 citizenship law, despite Rohingya having lived in Myanmar for
generations.
Since 2012, when Myanmar began inching towards
democracy, sectarian violence has erupted against Muslims, including
Rohingya. Arson attacks and killings have displaced over 140,000
Rohingya; many live in camps in Rakhine state where their movement and
access to basic services such as healthcare and education are severely
limited.
State-sponsored discrimination?
On Tuesday a report published by the Southeast Asia-based
human rights organization Fortify Rights claimed to have obtained
evidence of state-sponsored policies that deny Rohingya the same rights
as other ethnic groups in the country and severely restrict their
freedom.
It cited leaked government documents that detail a raft
of measures allegedly used to restrict the size of the Rohingya
population including limits on who they are allowed to marry and the
number of children they can have.
The Myanmar government flatly rejected the findings. A spokesperson for President Thein Sein told the Myanmar Times
that the government “Do[es] not remark on baseless accusations from
Bengali lobby groups.” The government does not recognize the term
Rohingya and refers to the community as Bengalis.
Regional implications
The
policies are designed to make life so intolerable for Rohingya they
leave the country, says Matthew Smith, director of Fortify Rights.
He says Southeast Asia needs to face squarely what is a growing refugee
crisis, and is critical of the response from Thailand, in particular.
It's
unclear how many Rohingya have fled Myanmar since violence escalated in
2012. The UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (UNCHR) estimates that
27,000 asylum seekers left by sea in the year ending June 2013. Some
left from Bangladesh and are thought to be Bangladeshi migrant workers.
However, Vivian Tan, a regional spokesperson in Bangkok for the UNCHR,
says most are Rohingya seeking asylum. Those who survive the treacherous
journey end up in neighboring countries including Thailand, Malaysia, and Indonesia.
“There
is an increasing sense of hopelessness in [Myanmar] that is pushing
more and more to flee,” says Ms. Tan. "We urge countries in the region
to keep their borders open and to give these people the protection they
need.”
Malaysia, a majority Muslim country, is a top destination
for Rohingya: Over 34,000 are registered with the UNHCR there. Malaysia
has won praise for its humanitarian response to refugee arrivals, but
rights groups say that it lacks a clear legal policy, putting migrants
and refugees at risk of exploitation and arbitrary arrest.
Australia
has also been criticized by rights groups for its treatment of boat
people, many of whom are Rohingya. Recent riots in an Australian-run
detention centre for asylum seekers in Papua New Guinea left one
detainee dead and injured others.
In Thailand, the government has
come under increasing pressure after a series of media reports have
shown Rohingya in cramped and inhumane detention centers and even implicated the Thai authorities in selling refugees to brokers for international human trafficking rings.
Thorny diplomacy
A
change of attitude towards Rohingya in Myanmar is the only thing likely
to stem the flow of boat refugees in the long term. But influencing the
Myanmar authorities – notoriously suspicious of outside interference –
is a thorny diplomatic issue.
Singapore-based analyst Alistair
Cook, a research fellow at the Centre for Non-Traditional Studies at
Nanyang Technological University, says countries including Thailand and
Malaysia are cautious about raising the Rohingya issue with the Myanmar
government at a time when they are building trade and economic ties.
“Myanmar is very sensitive to the outside world and this is an incredibly delicate issue,” says Mr. Cook.
He says there’s a need to humanize the issue and reframe it so the Rohingya are no longer referred to constantly as a burden.
“The
Rohingya are presented as inanimate objects that suck state resources
and cause problems wherever they go. This undermines their basic
humanity,” says Cook. “We need to shed light on the complexities of
their situation and encourage greater understanding of their long
history in this region.”
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