Rohingya Muslims, sometimes described as the world’s most persecuted minority, make up an ethnic group of about 1.1 million people that lived in the majority Buddhist Myanmar (also known as Burma) for hundreds of years. According to Al Jezeera, as they are not officially recognized as an ethnic group by the Myanmarese state, the Rohingya have been denied basic civil rights such as citizenship since the year 1982. Almost all Rohingya Muslims live in the extremely poor and underdeveloped state of Rakhine on the west coast and have been forbidden to leave without permission from the government.
According to data from the United Nations, approximately 168,000 Rohingya have fled Myanmar since 2012 in an attempt to escape economic inequality, violence, and persecution. But to make matters even worse, in August 2017, Myanmar military forces and local radical Buddhists launched an attack against the Rohingya including the destruction of villages and mass killings and gang rapes of civilians in Rakhine. According to recent United Nations reports, ethnic cleansing forced almost 700,000 Rohingya out of the state by January 2018 and into shelter in Bangladesh, which shares a border with Myanmar.
These Rohingya have now taken refugee in flimsy huts and tents at the bottom of the hills along the coast of southeastern Bangladesh. However, monsoon season, which generally lasts from June to September, will soon jeopardize the safety of the refugees, who have taken every space of land available.
The refugee camps clearly would not withstand the disasters often accompanied by monsoons. Humanitarian groups assert that heavy rains would damage health centers and destroy the dirt roads within the camp, slowing or stopping the delivery of food and medical supplies. The camp’s latrines, if flooded, would spread sewage into nearby wells and contaminate about a third of the drinking water supply. An outbreak of a water contamination-related disease such as cholera would kill thousands of underfed, unvaccinated children.
In preparation for the monsoons, the United Nations has asked the international community for $951 million, but has received less than 20% of this amount so far. All that the refugees can do right now is to fortify their camps. This entails digging trenches, laying out tarps, and reinforcing their shelters with bamboo poles.
According to the Inter Sector Coordination Group, which encompasses various relief agencies, 200,000 people must be relocated before the rains begin. They must find higher ground in order to avoid the brunt of the cyclones and landslides that characterize the wettest regions of Bangladesh. Yet many of the refugees have expressed no desire to leave, as they do not want to be separated from their extended family.
On Thursday, May 31st, the Myanmarese government reached an agreement with the United Nations that may serve as a first step toward returning the Rohingya Muslims to Myanmar. Yet this provides no indication that the Rohingya will indeed return to their country, as they faced years of persecution and violence and would have no inclination to return to those circumstances. Although the president’s office in Myanmar stated that it would create an independent commission of inquiry into the recent human rights violations, it established about six or so commissions past months that clearly did not prove to be effective.
The government of Myanmar, in order to attract back its Rohingya minority, must promise basic civil rights such as right to citizenship and freedom of movement and religion. Yet it does not show signs of willingness to do so. The security of the Rohingya refugees in Bangladesh remains at risk as many have no choice but to remain in their shelters, work alongside their communities to prepare for the monsoons, and pray for safety.
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