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Rohingya Crisis – The Forgotten People
By Taireen Hussain – MA, Graduate Student , University of Essex, U.K.
Statelessness some could say is one of the worst Human Rights abuses of today. For this we will look at the Rohingya. Myanmar’s Rohingya people represent a group that has been prosecuted in Burma for their ethnic, cultural and religious differences. Due to their prosecution, they had officially become stateless from 1982. We will investigate the true terminology of statelessness and look at the impact it has on two host countries. This paper will highlight the treatment the Rohingya face in Bangladesh and Burma. Overall, this review will highlight a cross-evaluation of the Human Rights abuses faced today.
It has been claimed that the Rohingya people are the ‘most persecuted in the world’ by the UN and yet it can also be said there has been little efforts in the international community to reduce this persecution and ethnic tensions in Burma (Myanmar). For more than 17 years, there has been a plight for the Rohingya people to regain its citizenship it once had in Burma. This paper will investigate the impact of statelessness in the 21st Century and the Human Rights abuses that coincide hand-in-hand with this concept of being ‘invisible’ and loss of nationality. With the case study of Rohingya in Burma, we will examine the treatment from host nations.
In this case, there will be an in-depth analysis of the treatment and legislation from the Burmese government under General Ne Win to current president Thein Sein. There will also a focus on Prime Minister Sheik Hasina in Bangladesh and the actions taken by the Bangladeshi government towards the influx of Rohingya people.
The Rohingya have a different ethnicity to those in the majority population, practice Islam and originate in Rakhine, which once used to be known as Arakan. It is claimed they have a different language, culture and historical background, thus, not claimed to be Burmese. This group represents the first Muslim community in now Myanmar and can be dated back to the 15th Century. Even with many generations living in Rakhine, ‘they are defined by the Burmese state as Bangladeshi nationals with no right to the privileges of Burmese citizenship,’ which led to a mass exodus of more than 250,000 Rohingya refugees 4 that fled persecution in the Union of Myanmar and arrived in Bangladesh, living in temporary camps and completely dependent on outside support from the United Nations (UN), the Government of Bangladesh (GOB) and numerous non-governmental organizations (NGOs).
The theoretical framework for this paper is that the Rohingya case study highlights the highest level of human rights abuses in this current era. There is strong evidence of ethnic cleansing in Burma and the consequence of that being mass exodus to neighbouring country, Bangladesh. Within this paper, the analysis is that by looking at legislation against stateless people in Burma, we will compare and contrast the human rights of the Rohingya in Burma and Bangladesh. It is undeniable that within Burma, the treatment of Rohingya is far worse than that in Bangladesh. Nevertheless, there are inexcusable actions taken by the Bangladeshi government in their treatment to the Rohingya.
Therefore, although the Burmese government treat these stateless people far worse with brutality, the Bangladesh government backhandedly treat them just as bad, however with a difference of political motive. It is also important to note the extreme poverty of the general population of Bangladesh and the impact that could have towards this treatment. The hypothesis for this paper is that Burma treats and had treated the Rohingya population much worse than Bangladesh. Therefore, the state with the legislation to eradicate a section of the population will treat this group much more badly than the state the stateless individuals will enter via human rights abuses.
In this paper, we will investigate legislation passed against the stateless group of Rohingya and the treatment by the political leaders. There will also be analysis of discourse by current leaders and the motives of human rights abuses. This review will focus on the Declaration of Human Rights as a basis of analysis to see if the state in question adheres to the rights of the Rohingya. Finally, there will be an evaluation of which nation alleviates the plight of the Rohingya and the nation that hinders development for social justice for the Rohingya.
It is understood internationally that the treatment towards Rohingya people in Burma is far from ideal. In this section of the essay, we will focus on the Rohingyas treatment in Burma. To empirically test the thesis of statelessness, we will focus on the legislation enforced in Burma and understand the impact it has on the Rohingyas human rights. This section should highlight a clear thesis of one stateless group in one host nation. To further this section, this paper will compare and contrast to another nation.
To conclude this paper, the review clearly highlights that the lack of citizenship in one country can cause greater human rights abuses than the state they enter following persecution. There is a sense that there is no help given to these stateless people, especially the Rohingya population. By using the internationally agreed UN Declaration of Human Rights, there is a consensus of the human rights abuses taking place in both nations.
