SC asks Centre to strike a balance on Rohingya issue:

SC asks Centre to strike a balance on Rohingya issue:

Context:

• The Supreme Court has finally settled on merely observing that a balance should be struck between humanitarian concern for the community and the country’s national security and economic interests.

How did the judiciary reach this decision?

• The decision is that the government should not deport Rohingya now, but the government prevailed on the court to not pass any formal order, citing international ramifications.
• The status quo remains though the court gave the community the liberty to approach it in case of any contingency.
• The court deferred the case to November 21 for detailed hearing. It will reopen after the Deepavali holidays on October 23.

Who are the Rohingyas?

• The Rohingya are an ethnic Muslim minority group living primarily in Myanmar’s western Rakhine state.
• They practice a Sufi-inflected variation of Sunni Islam.
• The estimated one million Rohingya in Myanmar account for nearly a third of Rakhine’s population.
• The Rohingya differ from Myanmar’s dominant Buddhist groups ethnically, linguistically, and religiously.

What is the Rohingya crisis?

• The Rohingya crisis is a human rights crisis with serious humanitarian consequences.
• Large number of Muslim Rohingya have fled Myanmar, many crossing by land into Bangladesh, while others take to the sea to reach Indonesia, Malaysia, and Thailand.
• The unfair policies of the Myanmar government in Rakhine state have resulted hundreds of thousands of Rohingya to flee since the late 1970s.

International organisation for migration

• The International Organization for Migration (IOM) is an intergovernmental organization that provides services and advice concerning migration to governments and migrants, including internally displaced persons, refugees, and migrant workers. As of September 2016, it became a related organization of the United Nations.
• IOM works in the four broad areas of migration management: migration and development, facilitating migration, regulating migration, and addressing forced migration. Cross-cutting activities include the promotion of international migration law, policy debate and guidance, protection of migrants’ rights, migration health and the gender dimension of migration.